


Dauntless

by Lorren



Series: Selfless Tetrology [2]
Category: Divergent Series - Veronica Roth
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 21:03:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 57,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3664929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorren/pseuds/Lorren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the second book to the Selfless tetrology.  You might want to read it first, as it explains some things that go on in this story.</p><p>Beatrice Prior, now going by Tris, chose Abnegation instead of Dauntless.  Fate brought Four into her life anyway, and now they are running to Amity with Tris's new friend Uriah and a few other familiar faces.  What will they do now that Erudite has practically destroyed Abnegation?  Do factions matter any more?  Can a cross-faction relationship work out?  Will Tris be ostracized from Abnegation for breaking the rules of her faction?  And what secret did Natalie Prior almost die for?</p><p>Tris's decision changed the fate of everyone in this story, but the world that has not been touched by her decision yet remains the same.  This story remains true to all three books of Veronica Roth's trilogy, as well as Four Divergent stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jumping into the Unknown

**Tris**

“Wake up,” I hear someone say through the haze of sleep. It’s Tobias. He’s gently shaking my uninjured shoulder. “We have to jump.”

Somehow, my head must have slumped over in my sleep, because it’s resting on Tobias’s shoulder. I sit up and shake the sleep out of my mind.

As soon as my mind wakes up, I’m reminded of the events of the day. The shotgun noises. My dad. I feel a pressure in my chest. Remembering hurts.

It’s dark outside, and I can’t see where I am, but we must be getting close to the fence if we’re getting ready to jump off. Tobias helps me stand to my feet.

Uriah jumps first, yelling with excitement as he sails through the air. Peter and Mother jump after him. Marcus and Caleb jump next. Tobias takes my hand. As we stand at the edge of the car, I feel the wind blowing across my hair.

We jump into the darkness. The impact of hitting the ground jars my shoulder. I would have landed on my knees, but Tobias’s hand steadies me, keeping me from falling. I bite my lip to prevent myself from crying out in pain.

I look around, trying to find my family. My mother must have landed on her feet, but my brother is sitting on the grass, rubbing his knee. “Are you okay?” I ask him.

He nods, but it is clear that the today’s events have gotten to him as well. He sniffles, as if he’s trying to keep from crying. I look to Mother. She looks worn out, and is rubbing her shoulder where she was shot.

We’re close to the fence, just yards away from a path where Amity trucks drive on in order to get food into the city. A gate blocks the road, and a high fence towers over us.

“Where are the guards?” Marcus asks, studying the situation.

Tobias shrugs. “They were probably part of the simulation. Who knows what they’re doing now.”

The simulation. I feel the hard drive in my pocket. I saw what looked like a fight breaking out on the video screens right after we ended the simulation, but I didn’t see what happened after that. Who in Abnegation survived? What about the people in Dauntless? What about the other factions? What about Amity? It’s impossible to know right now. I don’t know if I want to know.

Tobias walks over to a metal box on the right side of the fence. He opens a door to reveal a keypad. “Hopefully the Erudite didn’t think to change the combination,” he remarks. After typing in eight numbers, the gate pops open with a click.

Caleb stares at him in amazement. “How did you do that?”

“I worked in the control room in Dauntless,” Tobias explains, shrugging his shoulders. “I monitored all of the security systems for the city. The codes only get changed twice a year.”

“How lucky,” Caleb remarks, eyeing him warily.

“Luck has nothing to do with it. I worked there because I wanted to always make sure that I had a way of getting out.”

“No need to argue about it,” Uriah says, putting a hand on Tobias’s shoulder. “We are fortunate that Four worked in the control room. Now we can get out.”

I had never thought about being trapped inside the city before. Then again, it has always been peaceful inside the city. The factions had never attacked each other before. I had never really given much thought to what goes on outside of the fence, other than Amity’s farms. In school we were taught that the world outside the fence is dangerous; I never wanted to leave, and felt lucky to be a part of this city.

 

**Tobias**

It takes us a while to walk to Amity. We must look like an odd sight. Natalie, Beatrice – no, Tris – , and Peter with their injured shoulders and arms, Uriah, Marcus, and I, walking in a small pack. Caleb is in the back of the group; I can hear him crying, although he’s trying to muffle the sound. Tris is walking beside me. I look over her and smile. She notices my glance and weakly smiles back. I start to feel butterflies in my stomach.

It must be hard for the Priors today, losing a father and a husband. I think back to the day that I thought that my mother died. Although it turned out that my mother hadn’t _actually_ died, the pain was real. In my case, I was also left alone with my abusive father, which might have made it worse, but at that level of pain, do things really get worse? Losing a family member is about as bad as it can get.

We start to see light off in the distance. At first, I only see a few dots of light, like stars along the horizon. The stars slowly grow into window-shaped squares. Soon, we can see the Amity buildings – greenhouses for plants and wooden buildings for living spaces.

We arrive at an orchard. The ground is muddy beneath my feet; I can feel my shoes sinking slightly in the dirt. Overhead, the tree branches seem to form a tunnel. The overripe fruit hanging in the trees smell wonderful, although they remind me that it’s been quite a while since I ate. Too bad I left my backpack at the Abnegation safe house. I had food packed in it.

Marcus brushes past me. “I know where to go,” he says.

I inwardly roll my eyes. Sometimes he thinks he knows everything. It’s a wonder that he didn’t transfer to Erudite. He was certainly not selfless as a father. Still, he walks with the confidence of someone who seems to know where he’s going, this time. I hate having to follow him, but it seems like the best option at the moment. We follow him to a nearby building to the left of us.

Marcus opens one of the doors. If this were Dauntless, it would be locked. In Amity, everybody is supposed to be kind, so I guess that they don’t feel the need for protection. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why I didn’t feel like I could transfer here when I was making my escape from my father. I felt, and I guess still feel, too broken to fit in with them. Yet here I am, once again, following my father into God knows where.

The only sound that I can hear is that of our shoes. Marcus walks over to an open door. Johanna Reyes, Amity’s representative, is sitting, staring out a window. Johanna has a huge scar that stretches from her lip to her right eyebrow. Whatever injury she sustained, years ago, left her with a blind eye and with a lisp. I’ve seen her once or twice before; it’s hard to forget her face. It’s hard not to wonder what happened to her to injure her so badly.

Johanna walks over to Marcus and touches him lightly on the shoulders. When meeting someone from another faction, Amity tries to follow their customs, in order to make the other person more comfortable. She must realize that Abnegation tries to avoid close contact with others. “Thank God,” she says. “The other members of your group got here a few hours ago. We weren’t sure if you were going to make it.” I guess that the other people that I saw this morning, including the old man and the two kids that I saved, must have arrived safely.

Johanna looks at the group of us standing behind Marcus. “Oh my,” she says, looking at the bloodstains on Peter, Tris, and Natalie. “I’ll send for a doctor. I can grant you all permission to stay the night, but tomorrow, our community must decide together. And –” she looks at me, Tris, and Uriah – “they will likely not be enthusiastic about a Dauntless presence in our compound.”

“But – ” Tris protests, “– I’m Abnegation.”

She looks at Tris again. “I apologize. For a second I thought you were – it must be the gunshot wound.” She shakes her head.

Tris is wearing Abnegation grey, and has her hair in the characteristic Abnegation bun. I wonder why Johanna thought that.

“I need you to hand over any weapons that you might have,” Johanna adds.

I take out my gun and hand it to her. Tris is about to give Johanna her gun as well, but I grab her hand and hold it behind her back, preventing her from giving it up. Tris is Abnegation; nobody would suspect her of having a gun. Although Amity shouldn’t be dangerous, it’s better to be safe than sorry, as far as having protection is concerned.

Johanna holds out her hands to me. “My name is Johanna Reyes.” Johanna must be aware of the other faction’s customs. The Abnegation in me still feels uncomfortable shaking hands, but my hand meets hers anyway.

“This is T – ” Marcus begins.

“My name is Four,” I interrupt, frowning. “I’d like to introduce Tris, Caleb, Uriah, Peter, and Natalie.”

Caleb looks at me, then Tris. His expression is disapproving.

“We’re going into the unknown, into a new life,” Tris says, sensing his concern about her name change. “I figured that a new name would help me handle it better.”

Johanna seems oblivious to the conflict, or perhaps she chooses to ignore it. “Welcome to the Amity compound. Let us take care of you.”

 

Peter, Tris, and Natalie are escorted away to the hospital to take care of their bullet wounds. The rest of us are taken to the cafeteria, where some of the Abnegation that I saw this morning are sitting at long rows of tables. The old man and his children are there, along with a few of the people that I’d seen Tris talking to before. They seem genuinely happy to see all of us, although being Abnegation, they make an effort to not show their feelings. They seem to be especially happy to see Marcus. I hold in my revulsion about how deceived they are about his true character.

I sit down next to Uriah at one of the tables. Someone from Amity brings out a plate of fruit and chicken. We devour the food hungrily. I’m so glad to finally sit down and try to relax, although I don’t know how that’s going to happen. So much has happened in just the last twenty-four hours.

“Are you okay?” I ask Uriah. He fell asleep on the train, so we hadn’t really had the chance to talk.

“I guess,” he says. “I’m not hurt, like Peter and Beatrice.”

“Tris, now,” I correct him.

“Oh yeah.” Uriah takes a bite out of a drumstick. “What’s up with her anyway? She’s different.”

“Yeah,” I feel my mind drifting off, thinking about her. A smile starts to creep onto my face.

“Don’t know what’s up with my brother though,” Uriah continues. “I hope that he’s okay. Imagine waking up from a simulation like that, with all that chaos around you, not knowing what you might have done.” He frowns. “I saw him, before I was captured by some of the awake Dauntless guards. He was as much of a zombie as the rest of them.”

I shake my head. “I hope that he’s okay. Zeke is one of my best friends.”

Shortly after we finish eating, someone from Abnegation approaches us with steaming cups of pink-red liquid. “You have all been through a lot today. Drink this. It’ll keep the dreams away; especially the nightmares.”

I drink my cup. The heat from the drink feels good. I suddenly feel so much more relaxed. Someone from Amity takes me down a hallway, into a small room with a bed in it. I lie down, and quickly drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished writing most of this story during NaNoWriMo last November. I was burnt out at the end, and didn't finish it. I was EIGHT PAGES from the end! I didn't know that at the time though. It's finished now, and just needs to be polished up a bit. I hope you like it. Comments are welcome.


	2. Amity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tris, Tobias, and the refugees settle in at Amity.

**Beatrice**

An Amity nurse in a yellow shirt comes to get me, my mother, and Peter and takes us to the Amity hospital. “I’m Emily,” she smiles. “Doctor Steve will be here shortly. I’ll be back in a bit to get you something to relax.”

“Thanks,” I reply. Mother and I are directed to a room with two adjustable hospital beds in it. Peter is sent to a different room. I sit down in the bed, raising the back so that I’m sitting up, but in a reclined position. The walls in the room are painted brightly, with flowers and rainbows that I guess are there to try to lighten the mood of the patients that come here. I relax a little, trying, unsuccessfully, to rid my head of the events of the day.

I look over at my mother, but I’m not sure what to say. When I lost my father, she lost her husband. She has her eyes closed and looks deep in thought.

A few minutes later, Emily returns with clear liquid for both of us. “Painkillers,” she explains. I drink it quickly, and I start to feel a little hazy. Emily starts to work on me first. She puts a blood pressure cuff on my arm. I’m reminded of the time I went to the hospital years ago, when I was six years old. My mother had broken her arm. My brother was there as well, letting Mother know that it would only take about a month for her arm to heal. A slight smile reaches my face at the memory. I guess Caleb’s erudite tendencies go back a long way, only I didn’t recognize it at the time. I thought that he was just trying to reassure her back then.

After Emily takes my blood pressure, she turns to my mom. Mother looks exhausted. After the day that we’ve had, I feel the same way.

“Remember when you broke your arm?” I ask, after Emily walks out of the room.

“Yes,” mother replies softly.

“I wish that broken bones were all we had to worry about,” I say.

Mother sighs. “I do too.”

A man with slightly greying temples and glasses enters a short while later. “Hello, I’m Doctor Steve,” he says to us. “Looks like you both have had a rough day today.”

“I’ve had better.” I try to manage a smile.

Steve unwraps the t-shirt that Tobias had wrapped around my shoulder. “I’m going to have to go into the wound to get the bullet out. Even with the painkillers, it still might hurt a bit, okay?” I nod.

He uses a pair of scissors to cut away the cloth around my shirt where I was shot. When he takes out some tools to retrieve the bullet from my shoulder, I look away. The pain is strong, and I ball up my hands into fists, as if it will help me bear the pain. After what seems like an eternity, he stops. “Okay, it’s out. All I have to do now is stitch it up.”

He finishes stitching. “All done. You’ll heal up in no time.” He smiles at me.

Doctor Steve turns to my mother. “Let me take a look at your wound.” He pulls the neckline of her shirt to the side to see her bullet wound. “Who did the stitching?”

“My husband.”

The doctor smiles. “Well, he did an excellent job. I have some ointment that you’ll want to put on it to keep it from getting infected, but other than that, it looks like you’re all set.”

Emily comes back shortly later with a couple of red shirts, two small jars, and a couple of glasses of a strawberry-pink liquid. “Put this on your wounds a couple times a day to help speed up recovery,” she says, holding up one of the jars for us to see, “and drink this. It will help you sleep soundly without dreams. I’ll give you two a moment to change, and I’ll take you to your rooms here at Amity.”

I drink the liquid, and we change into the new shirts after Emily leaves the room. When she returns, she takes us down a hallway. She directs me to a room with a bed; my mother is given the room next to me. I lie down, and drift peacefully off to sleep.

 

The next morning, my eyes pop open, and for a moment, I look around, in panic, not remembering where I was. When I realize that I’m in Amity, a feeling of terror and loss washes over me. _Dad_. I look around the room that I went to, half asleep, the night before. It is sparsely furnished, with a dresser, a mirror, and a chair. The smell of sawdust fills my nostrils. A painting of a red rose in a vase hangs on the wall. I smile. In Abnegation, art is seen as selfish, so we aren’t allowed to have pretty things. It’s a nice change.

As I roll to my side, I feel something digging into my back. _My gun_. Tobias didn’t let me give it up when Johanna asked for us to hand over our weapons last night. Even though I know how to shoot one, I’m not overly enthusiastic about carrying one around. I guess that’s something that you have to get used to. I reach around my back and grab it. I shove it under my mattress and try to forget about it.

The sleep and pain medication that they gave me at the hospital has worn off. I feel a shooting pain in my shoulder. I see the hard drive poking out from under my pillow. I must have put it there before going off to sleep. It has the simulation data that was used to control Dauntless, and is a record of Erudite’s crimes. It also has a record of my father’s death, and perhaps the only picture that I have of him. Part of me thinks that I should destroy it, so it can’t be used again. I hide it behind my dresser, reminding myself that the hard drive is perhaps the only way I can ever see my father again.

I hear a knock on my door. My hair is a mess, so I quickly run my fingers through it, attempting to brush it. “Come in.”

The door opens, and Mother enters. “How are you this morning, sweetie?” she asks.

“I guess I’m okay, mom. I can’t believe that Dad’s gone though.”

“I know dear,” she says, putting her hand on my good shoulder. “I already miss him.”

“How are you, Mother?” I ask.

“I’ll be okay, sweetie.”

She holds up a small bottle. “I brought you this,” she says. “Pain medicine. You’ll want to take one dropperful every six hours.”

“Thanks,” I say. I unscrew the cap and fill up a dropperful of liquid. The medicine tastes like lemon.

“The Amity are meeting in a half hour,” she says softly. “They’re going to have a meeting about whether we can stay or not.”

“I never thought that my fate would be in the hands of a bunch of Amity.”

“Me either, but it will be okay.” She kisses me on the forehead. “I’ll see you shortly, Beatrice… Tris.”

She leaves the room, and before she closes the door completely, I hear a few knocks on the side of the doorway. Tobias is standing there, wearing the same jeans that he wore yesterday, but wearing a dark red shirt instead of the torn black one that he was wearing yesterday. Although I’m used to seeing him in black, the color of the shirt seems to lighten the color of his eyes.

“Good morning,” he says.

“Good morning.” I smile half-heartedly. He looks good in any color, but after yesterday, I’m not sure if I should focus on things like cute boys.

“Are you doing okay, Tris?” he asks, hooking a thumb into one of his belt loops.

“I’m awake, I guess,” I reply, shaking my head. He leans up against the door frame. “I don’t really know.”

I swallow. I just want to forget yesterday. I want to wish it away, make it never happen in the first place.

“I know,” he says, looking down. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

I look at him for a second. _How could you possibly know?_ I think to myself. I can see sadness in his face though. Suddenly, I remember that his mother died when he was young. I remember going to her funeral, although I don’t remember how she died.

Although I didn’t really know Tobias as a kid, a flash of memory fills my mind from years ago. Across the street, a little boy wearing gray robes, clutching the living room curtains. His eyes were shut, and sadness was evident on his face back then too. I guess he is familiar with losing a family member.

“I’ll let you get ready, okay?”

“Okay. I’ll see you soon.” I manage to smile at him, slightly, as he closes the door.

 

I walk to the women’s bathroom, which is two doors down from mine. A sign on the wall says REMEMBER: TO CONSERVE RESOURCES, SHOWERS RUN FOR ONLY FIVE MINUTES. I step into one of the shower stalls and close the plastic curtain for privacy. When I turn the water on, I am hit with an icy blast of cold. Even if I was allowed a longer shower, I wouldn’t want one. I use my right arm to wash my hair. With my long hair, that’s not easy to do. Fortunately, the pain medication that my mother gave me is already starting to work. The intense pain that I was feeling earlier is beginning to dull.

When I return to my room, a pair of dark red denim pants and a gray shirt is lying on my bed. Someone from Abnegation must have put it there. The shirt is too big, but at least it’s clean.

I hear a knock on my door. It opens a crack, and I see Susan. “Beatrice?” she says softly.

“Come in,” I tell her.

She is holding a tray of fruit, toast, and orange juice. I know that she lost her father yesterday as well, but she has a stoic look on her face. She sets the food down on my bed. “I’m sorry that the clothes are too big.”

“That’s okay. Thank you for bringing them,” I say. “You can call me Tris though. I figure that I need a stronger name to get me through whatever we need to face coming up.”

She nods. “I heard that you were shot. Do you need any help with your hair or your shoes?”

I start to reject her offer, but I do need some help.

“Yes, thank you.”

We sit on a stool in front of a mirror, but we don’t face it. I may not be that selfless, but we’ve both been taught since birth to avoid vanity. She looks at my hair, running a comb through it. Susan doesn’t ask how I was shot, or what happened after I left the Abnegation safe house. I think that if I looked up Abnegation in the dictionary, I would see a picture of Susan’s face. She either doesn’t have the least bit of curiosity to her; or she doesn’t let it show.

“Have you seen Robert yet?” I ask. Her brother, Robert, left for Amity the day that we both chose to stay in Abnegation, so he must be somewhere around.

“I saw him briefly, last night. I left him to grieve with his faction as I grieve with mine. It is nice to see him again though.”

Her tone tells me that the subject is closed.

“It’s too bad that this happened before our leaders were able to make the announcement,” she says.

I nod. “Yes, I heard my father talk about it at times.” The mention of my father brings another pang of sadness to my heart.

She puts my hair up into a pony tail, and then winds it up into an Abnegation bun. When she finishes, I thank her, and she leaves, closing the door behind her.

_Do I really want to keep my hair the same way?_ I think to myself. Everything is so different now. How can I continue to be Abnegation when there seems to be no Abnegation left? Especially when I was never really a very good Abnegation member to begin with. I take the pins out of my hair and unwind my hair from the bun, leaving it in a ponytail instead.

 

I see Tobias, Caleb, and Uriah in the hallway on the way to the meeting. Tobias and Caleb look at me like I’m a different person than I was yesterday. Maybe I am.

“Your hair is different,” Caleb notices, arching an eyebrow. How very Erudite of him, noticing the obvious. It doesn’t look like he slept well last night. His eyes are bloodshot, and his hair is sticking up on one side.

“Everything is different,” I point out. “Maybe we need to be different too.”

“I guess.”

“I like it,” Uriah says, grinning. Tobias frowns, but Uriah seems to be oblivious.

The floorboards creak beneath us as we walk down the hallway. When we get outside, the air outside smells clean, but it feels suffocating.

“Does everybody know that you’re Marcus’s son?” Caleb asks. “In Abnegation, that is?”

“Wait, what? Marcus is your dad?” Uriah asks.

“He is,” Tobias sighs, “but I don’t think that most people know that. I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t mention it to anyone.”

Caleb shrugs. “I wouldn’t really need to mention it. Anyone with a pair of eyes can figure it out for themselves.”

We approach a wide, squat building made out of glass. A crowd of people in yellow stand in front of us. We have to wait our turn to get inside. Once we get in, I notice that we are inside a large, circular greenhouse. All around the room, there are plants and trees growing in troughs and small bowls full of water. It is _hot_.

Dozens of fans are blowing air around the room, but they aren’t doing much to help. I’m already starting to sweat.

In the center of the room is a large tree. The branches spread out to fill most of the greenhouse, and the roots form an intricate web in the ground. In between the strands of the roots, I see water instead of dirt. Metal rods hold the roots in place. In Faction History class, I vaguely remember that Amity and Erudite often worked together to increase the productivity of the crops. This must be one of the results of their partnership.

Everyone in Amity is sitting on the floor with their legs crossed in front of them. We sit down towards the back of the room, behind the rest of Abnegation, and next to Peter and Marcus, who are already sitting down. Before we sit, Tobias whispers in my ear “I like your hair that way.” I smile at him.

Along the wall, just a few yards from us, two people from Amity are standing together, holding hands. They kiss each other. I’ve only seen a few kisses in my life, and seeing it out in the open seems very foreign to me. Part of me thinks that they are about to be scolded. Another part of me wonders, with a touch of longing, what it would feel like to have Tobias’s lips on mine. I blush at the thought.

“How can they be so public?” I say, looking in their direction.

“They’re just kissing,” Peter comments. “They’re not getting naked or anything.”

“A kiss is not something that you do in public.”

“Must be an Abnegation trait,” Uriah comments. “Most of us are okay with a little public affection.” He raises his eyebrows at me, and I roll my eyes.

“I guess I’ll have to get used to it while we’re in Amity,” I comment.

“Or you can stay frigid, like most Stiffs,” Peter shrugs.

“I am not _frigid_!” I exclaim. I can feel blood rushing to my face, once I remember that I’m sitting next to Tobias. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my mother sitting down. She must have heard that comment as well. She smiles slightly. It’s not like her to find humor in my embarrassment. Caleb, on the other hand, is giving me an odd look.

**Tobias**

“I’m not _frigid_!” Tris exclaims. Even though she’s the one saying it, I feel slightly uncomfortable hearing it. For Abnegation, Tris is certainly on the more affectionate side.

Peter, of course, is his usual cut-down-everyone-else self. I hate him. Seeing other people kissing made me a little uneasy too, when I first got to Dauntless. It doesn’t really bother me a lot now. During the few times when I went on double dates with Zeke, he ended up making out with his date while I sat silently with whatever date he had set me up with; at least until my date figured that she had enough and took off. That was a little uncomfortable. I can’t blame Tris for feeling a little awkward.

Adding to what must be her embarrassment; Tris also had to say that right in front of her mother. Natalie smiled though. She is not like most Abnegation parents that I know; certainly she doesn’t seem anything like my mother. My guess is that she must have been born Dauntless; she handles a gun and jumps on and off trains like it’s nothing.

Johanna Reyes is standing in the center of the room. When she lifts her hands and bows her head, the room falls silent. This continues for an uncomfortable minute or so.

Finally, she lifts her head. “We have an urgent question,” she says to the crowd around her, “which is: How will we conduct ourselves in this time of conflict as people who pursue peace?”

I watch as the Amity members turn to their neighbors and start chattering.

“How do they get anything done?” Tris asks after we had been watching them for several minutes.

“They don’t care about efficiency,” I point out. “They care about agreement. Watch.”

A few feet away, I see two women in yellow dresses stand up and join a small group of men. One small circle of Amity opens up to allow the group next to them to join. Slowly, the small groups around the room grow into a larger crowd, and fewer voices fill the room. Eventually, only a few people are talking. I only hear a word here and there: “Dauntless – Erudite – Abnegation – safe house – interfering –”

“This is bizarre,” Tris says quietly.

“I think it’s beautiful.”

Tris looks at me oddly.

“What?” I chuckle. “They each have an equal role in government; they each feel equally responsible, and it makes them care; it makes them kind. I think that’s beautiful.”

“I think it’s unsustainable,” she says. “Sure, it works for the Amity. But what happens when not everyone wants to strum banjos and grow crops? What happens when someone does something terrible and talking about it can’t solve the problem?”

I shrug. “I guess we’ll find out.”

A representative from each of the larger groups joins Johanna, walking carefully over the roots of the big tree. They quietly talk with Johanna for a minute. They must be reaching the final verdict.

“They’re not going to let us argue with them, are they?” Tris asks.

“I doubt it,” I answer, shaking my head.

I can only hope that they come to a positive conclusion.

After Johanna’s group finishes their discussion, everyone sits down. Johanna stands by herself in the middle of the room once more. She faces us, clasping her hands together in front of her.

“Our faction has had a close relationship with Erudite for as long as any of us can remember. We need each other to survive, and we have always cooperated with each other,” she begins. This is not good. “But we have also had a strong relationship with Abnegation in the past, and we do not think it is right to revoke the hand of friendship when it has for so long been extended.”

Her voice is slow, and it feels like she is carefully choosing her words.

“We feel that the only way to preserve our relationships with both factions is to remain impartial and uninvolved,” she continues. “Your presence here, though welcome, complicates that.”

Is she going to make us leave? Will she make me, Uriah, and Peter leave, but allow Tris and the rest of Abnegation to stay?

“We have arrived at the conclusion that we will establish our faction headquarters as a safe house for members of all factions. Under a set of conditions. The first is that no weaponry of any kind is allowed on the compound. The second is, if any serious conflict arises, whether verbal or physical, all involved parties will be asked to leave. The third is that the conflict may not be discussed, even privately, within the confines of this compound. And the fourth,” she concludes, “is that everyone who stays here must contribute to the welfare of this environment by working. We will report this to Erudite, Candor, and Dauntless as soon as we can.”

Johanna stares at me, Uriah, and Peter. “You are welcome to stay here if and only if you can abide by our rules. That is our decision.”

Although there is tension between me and Marcus, and I’m not that fond of Peter, I guess this will have to do. For now. While the verdict is livable for a short period of time, it’s not sustainable. The thought sours my mood a little.

“We will have to leave soon,” I whisper to Tris.

She nods in response.


	3. Instability

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tris is not sure where she belongs. When Dauntless leaves, should she go with them? Or should she stay with the Abnegation, where she no longer feels like she belongs?

**Tris**

After the meeting, I go back to my room to think. I worry about the gun underneath my mattress. What if I get caught? Then again, I don’t think that Mother turned in her gun either. What if she gets caught? I suppose that as long as nobody searches under my mattress, I’ll be okay. Like Tobias said, we probably won’t stay here long anyway. I don’t know if I can go where he goes though. I’m Abnegation, and he’s Dauntless. Why would I be accepted anywhere that he was? Who would accept him in places where I was welcome?

When lunch comes, I sit down next to Tobias. Uriah sits down on the other side of me. Four frowns. Mother sits down across from us.

“I guess we can stay here for a while,” I comment, cutting my sandwich in half.

“Yeah. I guess it will be okay,” Four comments. “They have me on kitchen duty tomorrow.”

“Me too,” Uriah says. “In the meantime, I’m free to go meet some of these pretty Amity ladies. Do you want to join me, Four?”

Tobias shakes his head and smiles. “No thanks,” he says. “You’re a lot like your brother, you know that?”

“Us Pedrads need to stick together.” Uriah grins. “I think I’ll see if I can get someone to teach me how to play the banjo. That would be fun.”

Mother smiles.

I take a bite of my sandwich. “This isn’t very good,” I say. I don’t know what it is with the food here. The fruit here is delicious though.

I see Caleb and Susan sitting down together at another table, discussing something. They seem to be off in their own world. I hope that things work out for them. I used to think that Robert and I would get married one day and live next door to Caleb and Susan. When Caleb chose Erudite and Robert chose Amity, I figured that it wouldn’t happen. Although I have no intention of seeking out Robert now, it would be nice if things work out for Caleb and Susan, now that the factions are all in disarray.

 

In the evening, I take a walk. The day is too beautiful to stay inside all day. I walk through the gardens, enjoying the feeling of the sunshine on my face.

I see movement out of the corner of my eye. Johanna Reyes and Marcus Eaton are walking together, side by side. They’re looking at mint leaves in the herb garden. Curious, I scramble out of the building to try to find out what they’re talking about.

I see them disappear into a row of trees on the far side of the greenhouse. I creep down the row beside them, hoping to be concealed by the branches that are between us.

“…been confused about the timing of the attack,” Johanna says. “Is it just that Jeanine finally finished planning it, and acted, or was there an inciting incident of some kind?”

“Hmm.” Marcus remarks.

“I suppose we’ll never know,” Johanna comments, raising her good eyebrow. “Will we?”

“No, perhaps not,” he says flatly.

Johanna puts her hand on his arm, turning towards him. I hold my breath, hoping that she doesn’t see me. Fortunately, her eyes are on Marcus. I quietly creep backwards so I’m less likely to be seen.

“But you _do_ know,” she says. “You know why she attacked when she did. I may not be Candor anymore, but I can still tell when someone is keeping the truth from me.”

“Inquisitiveness is self-serving, Johanna.”

_Johanna is not Abnegation_ , I think to myself. _Why should she be concerned with self-serving?_ “My faction depends on me to advise them, and if you know information this crucial, it is important that I know it also so that I can share it with them. I’m sure you can understand that, Marcus.”

“There is a reason you don’t know all the things I know. A long time ago, the Abnegation were entrusted with some sensitive information.” This must have something to do with the papers my mom retrieved, with the emergency meeting my father had on Visiting Day, and with the exciting news that they had hinted about. “Jeanine attacked us to steal it. And if I am not careful, she will destroy it, so that is all I can tell you.”

“But surely –”

“No,” Marcus says with a finality in his voice. “This information is far more important than you can imagine. Most of the leaders of this city risked their lives to protect it from Jeanine and died, and I will not jeopardize it now for the sake of sating your selfish curiosity.”

It is getting dark around me; I can barely see my hands in front of my face. I try to breathe quietly to remain undetected.

“I’m sorry,” Johanna says. “I must have done something to make you believe that I am not trustworthy.”

“The last time I trusted a faction representative with this information, all my friends were murdered,” Marcus replies. “I don’t trust anyone anymore.”

I’m sure that my mother knows what’s going on. I’ll have to talk to her about it.

“In order to have peace, we must first have trust,” Johanna says softly. “So I hope you change your mind. Remember that I have always been your friend, Marcus, even when you did not have many to speak of.”

About half a minute later, I hear someone walk away, but I can’t see what is going on. I sit in the orchard for a minute and try to process their conversation, waiting for the other person to walk away as well.

Did Jeanine kill my father for the information that my mother risked her life for during the attack? What could be so important that Erudite was willing to kill over?

 

**Tobias**

After dinner, I go to my room. I think of what I’m going to do after I leave. I wonder where I could go with Tris. What to do about the conflict going on inside the fence.

A knock on the door interrupts my thoughts. I open the door. Caleb is standing at the door. “Hello,” I say.

“Can I come in?” Caleb asks.

“I suppose,” I say, opening the door wider. I barely know Caleb, so I’m not sure what he wants. He enters, and I close the door behind me. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on between you and my little sister?” his question has accusation behind it.

“What?” I ask, incredulously. Caleb’s hair is mussed up, and his shirt is buttoned in the wrong buttonholes. For a second, I wonder if sloppy dressing is an Erudite thing, but thinking about most of the other Erudite I have ever met, I figure that it must be a Caleb thing.

“You heard me. What are you doing with my little sister?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I sit down on my bed.

“When I found out about the attack, I go warn my family. _Beatrice_ suggests a safe house to go to. The same safe house that _you_ just happen to show up at. When you come through the door, she knows who you are – not your _real_ name, but the one that everyone calls you now. The next thing that I know, she’s using a gun, getting shot at, changes her name, and changes the way she wears her hair. What am I supposed to think?”

“We’re friends,” I comment. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a lot going on lately, that I have absolutely nothing to do with. Do you think that perhaps that could have something to do with Tris’s behavior?”

Caleb pauses for a second, then lifts an eyebrow at me. “So just how does someone in Dauntless become _friends_ with someone in Abnegation, anyway?”

“She came to pick up the donations for the factionless. I helped her find where she needed to go.” Caleb is starting to get on my nerves. “How does one make friends with anyone, anyway?”

I hear laughing outside my door, and a knock. When I open the door, I see Uriah and Tris standing outside. Both are smiling. “Four!” Uriah exclaims. “I guess that this is where the party is at.”

“I guess it is,” I say. “Come in.” Although it makes no sense, a sharp pang of jealousy washes over me.

“Uriah was just telling me about how you guys would slide down harnesses hooked to a wire from a hundred stories up,” Tris says. “That sounds amazing! Did you ever get the chance to go?”

Even the thought of ziplining from the Hancock building makes me nauseous. “No,” I say quietly. “It seems like I always have to work whenever they go.” _I always have to work because I always volunteer for that shift._

“Too bad,” Tris responds. She sits down on the bed next to me. “It sounds like a lot of fun.”

_Not if you’re afraid of heights._

“So Four,” Uriah says, sitting down on the other side of Tris, “I was wondering what we should do next. I get the impression that Johanna doesn’t really want to keep us Dauntless around.”

“We’ll have to leave shortly.” _Did Uriah really have to sit there?_

“Where should we go?” Uriah asks. 

“Hmmm…” I think. “Some of the Dauntless must still be on our side. I can’t imagine your brother siding with a bunch of _Erudite_ murderers.” I look at Caleb. “Although I’m sure that not all Erudite are involved. We should try to find those Dauntless that are with us.”

“Good idea.”

“I should be getting back to my room,” Caleb comments. “I’m reading this book about water-filtration systems. The kid who gave it to me looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to read it. I think it’s supposed to be a repair manual, but it’s fascinating.” He looks at the rest of us. “You probably think I’m crazy too.”

“Not at all,” I reply. “Have fun reading. Maybe Tris will want to read it later.”

She gives me an evil look as Caleb nods.

After Caleb leaves, Tris asks “What did my brother want?”

“I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Okay.”

“Are you going to stay here, Tris?” Uriah asks, “When we leave?”

Tris sighs. “I don’t know what to do. My faction doesn’t exist anymore. I think that whoever is left in Abnegation is staying here.” She pauses for a second. “I’m not sure that Johanna likes me though. Part of me feels like I don’t belong anywhere any more.” Her eyes stare off in the distance.

“I have to get up early tomorrow,” Uriah says, getting up. “Kitchen duty starts bright and early. I’ll be seeing you.” He gets off the bed and heads for the door.

“You know, you could come with us,” I say, after Uriah leaves. “I don’t think that anybody on our side would mind. It is my faction’s fault that Abnegation is in the position that it’s in in the first place.” I reach out my hand to hers. She grasps it in response.

“I’d like to,” she replies. “I just don’t know. I’d probably feel out of place. But then again, I might feel the same way here.”

“If you’re going to feel out of place either way,” I say, brushing a strand of hair out of her face, “I’d like it if you were with me.”

She looks down, and her cheeks turn a bit pinker. “I’ll take that under consideration.” She looks up, smiling at me. “So, what was it that my brother wanted again?”

“He wanted to talk to me about you.”

“Why?”

“I think that he was trying to be protective of you. He was asking about how we got to be friends, how all of a sudden you change your name and hair… that sort of thing.”

Tris rolls her eyes. “Most of that has nothing to do with you.”

“I know,” I sigh. “But I guess, in his mind, all of a sudden I show up, we’re friends, when prior to that, in his mind, you were some perfect Abnegation girl. We didn’t even know each other, or have a reason to know each other, and all of a sudden you’re using a gun, getting shot, and changing your name.”

Tris laughs quietly. “Trust me, Caleb never thought that I was the perfect Abnegation girl. I always had trouble with selflessness, and he always reminded me of that whenever he had the chance. But perhaps you’re right. Maybe since I had a hard time being Abnegation to begin with, he thinks you’re corrupting me.”

I reach out my hand to caress her hair. I know that I probably shouldn’t, with Tris being Abnegation. She doesn’t stop me though.

“Tobias?”

“Yes,” I say softly.

“I saw your dad talking to Johanna earlier today. They were talking about the attacks. Johanna was wondering if the attack had anything to do with the information that Abnegation is keeping a secret.”

“What information?”

“I’m not sure, but my parents had been talking about it recently. Some sort of exciting news that they want to announce. Of course, with this attack, I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. Anyway, Marcus and Johanna got into an argument because Marcus didn’t want to give her the information.”

Marcus has a way of trying to make himself feel more important than he really is. That might be why he had no problem with beating his own child. “I think that Marcus is just trying to make himself feel important.”

“Maybe. But maybe I should talk to mother about it.”

I smile. I’m sure that there’s nothing for her to be concerned about. “I guess it would never hurt to ask her. But Marcus is a really good liar.”

She frowns. “I don’t think that he was lying.”

I shrug. “It doesn’t hurt to talk to your mother, but more important than that, we need to make sure that we’re taking care of ourselves now.”

She nods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anybody do role playing games? My friends and I have a Friday-night role playing game where I play a fighter named Tris. My husband is playing a ranger named Katerdeen (a male version of the Hunger Games' Katniss). I've started a new story loosely based on our adventures there, although I switched the other characters around. It's in a completely different setting than I've seen other Divergent fanfics written in (LOL, perhaps there's a reason for that though). Feel free to check it out if you're interested.


	4. What You Think You Know is Not How It Appears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tris, Tobias, Natalie, and the other Abnegation/Dauntless refugees have breakfast. Some of them know they will have to leave soon.

**Tris**

When I wake up early in the morning with a ton of things on my mind, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. I was the first person to sit down in Amity’s cafeteria in what has become the Abnegation and Dauntless section. The sun’s rays were just peeking over the horizon, causing a golden glow to fill the room. Perhaps, if I hadn’t just gone through one of the most stressful times of my life, it might even make me happy. I don’t think I even remember what it’s like to be happy anymore.

Tobias and Uriah were working in the kitchen as part of our bargain to stay in Amity, otherwise I would have stopped by to grab them and have breakfast with them. Mother must have gotten up early as well; she spots me across the room and sits down to join me.

I smile at her. “Good morning.”

“Good morning to you.” She smiles back at me. I notice a mischievous sparkle in her eye that seems a little uncharacteristic for her. “That boy you like – he’s handsome.”

“What?” I hadn’t ever mentioned Tobias to her.

“You know who I’m talking about.”

I smile back. I can feel a small amount of warmth rush to my cheeks. “Yeah, but we’re in different factions. I don’t know how that’s supposed to work out.”

She eats a couple of raspberries. “Don’t worry about that. Soon, factions won’t matter anyway.”

I raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Mother looks thoughtful for a second. “It’s hard to explain, but let’s just say that a lot of what you think you know is not how it appears.”

I give her a puzzled look.

“For example, did you know that I knew how to fire a gun? Or even that we had a gun in our house all this time?”

I shake my head.

“Just one example.” Mother takes a bite out of her toast, makes a face, and sets it down. “It’s not my place to say if he hasn’t, but has Tobias told you about his father?”

I’m confused. “But how do you –”

“Exactly. How would I know about that, unless there are things about me – about this city – that a lot of people don’t know about?”

My mom was not making any sense. How could the factions not matter? How did she know about Tobias – his real name, or presumably, about his father’s abuse? I can understand, perhaps, how she might figure that I liked Tobias, but how would she know more than that?

“I’m sure that you have a lot of questions,” my mom continues. “I wish that I could give you the answers. I will. Soon.” She pats my hand reassuringly. “Don’t worry about Four though. If you like him, it’ll turn out okay. The faction differences won’t matter soon enough.”

I want to ask her about Marcus, and the information that they found, but from the sound of it, I don’t think that she’d be able to tell me anything.

I see Caleb walking across the room, carrying a tray. I wave to him, and he sits down next to us.

“How are you this morning?” I ask.

“I guess I’m as good as can be, considering the circumstances,” he replies. I nod in response. “I have been reading an excellent book about biotechnology though.”

Mother gives an amused smile. She must have sensed his Erudite tendencies long before any of us could have suspected them.

Caleb starts eating the middle of his toast. He’s always saved the crust for last, even when we were little. “You know how the big tree in the Amity greenhouse is surrounded by water, and not dirt? That’s because scientists in Erudite have developed a highly effective mineral solution that is better for the plants than dirt. It’s like the healing salve that they gave to you for your bullet wounds; it accelerates the growth of new cells.”

Caleb looks excited; satisfying his curiosity and filling his need to learn new things seems to be doing wonders for his mood. Jeanine Matthews might be power hungry and devoid of conscience, but Caleb is just curious and fascinated by figuring out how things work. I’m happy for him. We all have to go through things that cause a lot of grief right now, but at least he has found something to take his mind off of it.

“I think I remember a little bit about that.”

“Well, it’s amazing. Erudite works more closely with Amity than with any other faction. Amity and Erudite are called the ‘essential factions’ – without them, we would be incapable of survival. Some of the Erudite texts call them the ‘enriching factions.’ And one of Erudite’s missions as a faction was to become both – essential and enriching.”

I frown. I was never concerned about it before, but with the recent events, I’m now bothered by how much our city depends on Erudite. We _do_ need them. They help us farm more efficiently, give us better medical treatments, and advance our technology.

I take a bite of my toast. No wonder Mother made a face when she tried it earlier. It tastes funny; then again, so did the sandwich that I had yesterday. I think I’ll avoid the bread from now on. I start eating my apple instead.

“Are you going to eat your toast?” he asks.

I shake my head. “You can have it if you want.” He grabs it and puts it on his plate.

Mother stands up. “I need to go out to the farms later. I’ll see you both soon.”

We wave to her as she leaves.

“Amity is amazing,” Caleb says. “They’re completely self-sustaining. They have their own source of power, their own water pumps, their own water filtration, their own food sources… They’re independent.”

“Independent,” I say, “and uninvolved. Must be nice.” I take a bite out of my apple.

I look out the window next to us. They are large and let in a lot of sunlight; the warmth streaming in makes it almost feel like I’m sitting outside.

“Does Amity have you on the work schedule today?” I ask.

“Yeah, I’m working out in the orchards this afternoon.”

A group of Abnegation comes into the cafeteria, wearing Amity clothes, but still looking like they belong in Abnegation. They are quiet, nodding their heads and smiling slightly as they pass the Amity. Susan sits down next to Caleb. She sits down close to him, although they don’t touch. She nods her head at me in greeting. I nod back.

“Did I interrupt?” she says softly.

“No,” Caleb says. “How are you?”

“I’m well. How are you?”

Before I have the chance to excuse myself, Tobias and Uriah come in. Tobias is looking harassed; Uriah, good natured as always, is smiling, but his smile is not as wide as normal.

 

**Tobias**

Kitchen duty has not been going well. I don’t mind the hard work, scrubbing dishes, but it seems that not all of Amity is as friendly as they claim to be. One of the Amity in the kitchen asked if I killed any babies, and tries to lecture me and Uriah on how guns and conflict don’t solve anything. Another asked me if I was related to Marcus. I had to hold my tongue to keep from escalating the tensions.

On top of that, the kitchen supervisor wasn’t all that good-natured when Uriah and I had a small soap bubble fight. I had to mop up the mess.

Our time finally finishes, and I go into the cafeteria to grab something to eat. I spot Tris, sitting next to her brother and another girl from Abnegation. Caleb looks like he’s pretty friendly with his friend. Perhaps I’m not the only person who has an interest in an Abnegation girl.

I sit down next to Tris. “Are you okay?” she asks.

“In their enthusiasm for conflict resolution, the Amity have apparently forgotten that meddling creates more conflict,” I say. “If we stay here much longer, I am going to punch someone, and it’s not going to be pretty.”

Caleb and his Abnegation friend raise their eyebrows at me. Some of the Amity at the table next to ours fall silent and stare.

“You heard me,” I snarl at them, causing them to look away.

“So what happened?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Have you ever met Susan?” Tris asks, waving her hand at Caleb’s friend. “She was one of our neighbors when we were kids.”

Susan. I think for a second. I remember her vaguely. She had a brother named Robert. I don’t want to give away who I am though. “I’m Four. It’s nice to meet you, Susan.” I don’t reach out my hand to shake hers, knowing the Abnegation’s aversion to touch. I’m not so fond of handshakes myself.

She nods her head. “Nice to meet you, Four.” If she recognizes me, she doesn’t say anything.

Other Abnegation sit down at our table as well, but they sit farther away from us.

Marcus walks up behind us and puts a one hand on Uriah’s shoulder, and the other one on mine.

“What do you want?” I ask sourly.

Susan gives me a disapproving look.

“I would like to discuss something with you,” Marcus says. I can tell that he’s not happy. “The other Abnegation and myself have discussed it and decided that we should not stay here. We believe that, given the inevitability of further conflict in our city, it would be selfish of us to stay here while what remains of our faction is inside that fence. We would like to request that you escort us.”

I stare at the table. The last thing that I want to do is go someplace with my father, but I know that I can’t stay here either. Tris is staring at Marcus.

“What do you think?” Tris asks me.

“I think that we should leave the day after tomorrow,” I say.

“I know I’ll be glad to get out of here,” Uriah says.

“Thank you,” Marcus replies. He sits down next to the rest of Abnegation at the other end of the table.

Tris grabs my hand under the table and gives it a slight squeeze. “I’ll be glad to get out of here too,” she says quietly. “As long as I have a place to go to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	5. The Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tris is attacked, but Four is there to save the day.

**Tris**

I go back to my room after breakfast and try to relax, but I just can’t manage to shut off my mind. Mother said that she was going out to the farm, so I go outside to see if I can find her. After I wander around the orchards and gardens for a while, I find her in the raspberry patch.

“Mind if I help?” I ask, bending over to pick up a raspberry.

“Sure. I’m sure that Amity won’t mind if we do more than our assigned duties,” she replies, plunking another raspberry into her bucket.

I pick some more berries. I’d like to ask mother about what I had heard Marcus talking about, but I’m not sure how to bring it up.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, sweetie,” Mother says with a smile.

“I heard Marcus talking the other day,” I begin. “I didn’t mean to; it just happened.” I would never have made a good candidate for Candor. “Do you think that Erudite attacked Abnegation for a reason?”

Mother pauses for a second, as if she is trying to put her thoughts together. “Perhaps.”

I put more berries into the bucket. “Do you think that it might have anything to do with the news that you and Father were working on?”

“We might never know for sure.” Mother sighs. “It is a little suspicious though, isn’t it?”

“It must be really important,” I frown. “For Father to die for.”

Mother nods. “It is.”

I don’t want to pry. I know that whatever this information is, she’ll let us know when she can. In the meantime, I help pick raspberries. At least it gives me something to do.

 

I have a nightmare that night. Father. The sleepwalking Dauntless that killed him are now after me. They’re running after me, pointing their guns, and I’m running out of breath. When I trip over a rock, one of them knocks me down and jumps on top of me. The Dauntless soldier raises his arm, and is ready to punch me out.

I wake up from my nightmare to confront a reality that was nearly as terrifying. Peter is in my room with me, and he is sitting on top of me. As I start to scream, he reaches his hands to my throat and cuts off the air to my lungs. I’m being strangled.

“So, do you think that you’re Dauntless or something?” he spits. “Stay with your own people in Abnegation!”

“Get off me!” I croak, as soon as he releases my throat just enough to breathe.

“Where is the hard drive?” he asks angrily. “What makes you think that you have the right to it? I need it!” He slaps me in the face. “Did you hide it somewhere in this room?”

“I—” I croak. He still has one hand around my neck.

He lets go of my neck so I can answer him, but instead I start to scream. He quickly puts his hand back over my throat.

He grabs my chest. “You’re supposed to be sixteen, Stiff? You don’t seem to be a day over twelve.”

My mind fills with terror. What is this monster trying to do? The edges of my vision start to fade into black. I can’t think.

 

**Tobias**

I’ve had difficulty sleeping ever since I arrived at Amity. There could be any number of explanations. The people here seem artificially friendly. I’m in the same building as Marcus. My faction members went on a killing spree, killing innocents. Whatever it is, I can’t sleep.

Normally when I can’t sleep, I can always go to the training room and punch and kick a punching bag. I can’t do that here. I lie in my bed for a while, but decide to get up and go for a walk. Maybe if I take a walk outside, I can use up enough energy to sleep. It wouldn’t hurt to at least try.

As I walk down the hall, I hear a scream. It’s quiet, as if someone was trying to prevent someone else from screaming. My heart starts beating more quickly. Whoever is being attacked needs help. _Please don’t let it be Tris_.

I rush to Tris’s room. Her door is open a crack. I push it open. _It is Tris_. Peter is sitting on top of her, strangling her, and who knows what else. I fight off a wave of nausea at the thought. I grab Peter and pull him off of her.

I hit Peter in the face. As I pull back to swing again, he staggers away. I turn to Tris, who is only semi-conscious at this point.

I sit down next to her at the edge of the bed. “Are you all right?” I ask softly, reaching out to touch her long blonde hair.

For a minute, she lies there with half closed eyes. I’m not sure how conscious she is. I continue to stroke her hair, and am about ready to send someone to go get an Amity doctor, when she smiles faintly. Tears are forming in the corner of her eyes. “I’ll be okay,” she whispers hoarsely. She makes an attempt to sit up; I help her. She leans against me and puts her arms around me.

I wrap my arms around her, and stroke her back. “It’s okay Tris,” I whisper.

Tris is crying. “Thank you. How did you know that I was in trouble?”

“The door was open a crack and I heard you.” I find myself kissing her forehead. I probably haven’t kissed anybody, in any way, since my mother’s funeral. Maybe it’s not such a good idea now, but I do it without thinking.

“He grabbed me,” she says, closing her eyes. “I hope he doesn’t come back.”

I tense up at the thought of Peter touching her. “I could stay with you,” I offer quietly.

“Tobias, I barely know you!” her face turns slightly pink.

“I don’t mean it like that. I can get some blankets and sleep on the floor. That way Peter won’t be able to come back. Would that be okay?” I look into her blue eyes. “I’d hate to see you get hurt again.”

She nods at me.

“I’ll be back,” I say. I slowly lower her back down onto her bed, careful not to irritate any injuries that she might have. I walk down the hall to my room and return with several blankets.

I lay out the blankets and lay down. I look at Tris, who appears to be on the verge of sleep. “Thank you,” she says to me drowsily.

I smile back at her.

I look up at the ceiling. I couldn’t imagine if anything happened to Tris. Seeing Peter attacking her brought out a rage in me that I didn’t know that I had. Holding Tris… that was definitely something I’d like to do again.

“Tris?” I say.

“Yeah?”

“I think I might love you,” I say quietly. “I’m waiting until I’m sure to tell you though.”

“That’s sensible of you,” Tris yawns. “We should find some paper so you can make a list or a chart or something.” Her eyelids are drooping.

I sit up and brush my hand against her jaw. I kiss her on the forehead again. “Maybe I’m already sure,” I say, “and I just don’t want to frighten you.”

“I don’t scare easily. You know that.”

“Fine. Then I love you.”

She smiles, but her eyes close all the way. I don’t know if she’ll remember my confession when she wakes up tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that you like this chapter. Comments are always welcome!


	6. No Justice, No Peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tobias gets angry in Amity, and they discover Amity's view on justice.

**Tobias**

I wake up before Tris does. I look over her and see her lying on her side, facing me, one arm draped over the edge of her bed. I smile at the sight of her. As soon as I remember why I am here though, and how Peter attacked her last night, I frown.

I watch her eyes flutter open. “Good morning,” I say. “How did you sleep?”

She sees me and smiles. “I’m okay,” she says quietly. “My throat hurts though.”

I stand up and kiss her on the forehead. She smiles at me, and grabs my hand. “I’m glad you were there for me. That Peter – he’s something else, isn’t he?”

Something else is right. “He wasn’t very nice to the initiates in Dauntless, either.”

I gather up my blankets and head out the door. “I’ll see you at breakfast,” I say as I leave.

I see Caleb on the way to my door. He glares at me. “What were you doing with my sister?” he asks, accusingly.

“Maybe you should ask Peter that,” I comment. As if on cue, Peter steps out of his room. I drop my blankets and punch him in the face. “That’s for Tris,” I say, as he reels backwards.

“What, the Stiff can’t send the message herself?” Peter laughs, rubbing his jaw. “She sends an Abnegation-loving faction traitor to do her dirty work for her?”

I remember his injured shoulder; I push him there. “Why should she even have a message to send in the first place?” I ask. “If you hadn’t attacked her, we wouldn’t have a problem, would we?”

“What’s going on?” Caleb asks. By this time, other people are filling the hallway, watching us. Peter lunges at me and hits me in the stomach. Someone from Amity grabs me by the arms and pulls me away from Peter.

Tris comes out into the hallway. When she sees Peter, she gives him a dirty look.

“You violated the terms of our peace agreement,” the Amity man holding on to me says. “We must follow protocol.” Another person from Amity grabs my other arm.

“Peter was the one who violated the terms!” I protest.

“He attacked me,” Tris says, pointing at Peter. I’ve already been pulled halfway down the hallway at this point, and they don’t seem to notice.

“Watch your step,” one of the Amity people tells me. “The floorboards are uneven.”

I enter a room that says CONFLICT ROOM on the door.

“What are you doing to me?” I scowl. The room is so bright, I cover my eyes with my hands.

“Sit down, please,” an older Amity man with graying temples says, motioning for me to sit down. I reluctantly sit.

“Peter attacked Tris last night,” I frown.

“We have to follow protocol,” the other Amity man says. “We can discuss what happened, and then we can let you go.”

They are speaking softly to me. It is infuriating. Don’t these people ever have real emotions? “What is there to discuss? Peter attacked Tris. Is that acceptable behavior here at Amity?” My voice seems louder than I meant it to sound.

I look behind me. The older man is doing something on the counter.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m making tea,” the man says softly.

“Tea is not going to help anything.”

“Tell us then, what will solve this problem?”

“Get rid of Peter.”

“You seem to be the one having the trouble,” he says quietly. “You attacked him this morning. You also shot him in the arm when you were in Dauntless.”

“So it’s okay for him to go around attacking people?” I protest. “He stabbed an initiate in the eye with a butter knife. Is that acceptable too?”

I feel a pain in my neck.

“Sorry,” he says. “We are just following protocol.”

I see the older man holding a syringe. He has injected me with a syringe containing a grass green liquid. Although I am familiar with Dauntless’s simulation serum, I’m not familiar with this one.

The world seems to be spinning a little.

“How do you feel?” the younger Amity man asks me.

I’m confused. Shouldn’t I feel angry? “I feel… good. How do you feel?”

“I’m feeling well, thank you. We should take you back to your room to rest.”

“That sounds good,” I say. “Can I see Tris?” I smile at the thought of her. “I really like her. She’s pretty brave, for Abnegation.”

“I think that Tris went to the laundry room. She’s supposed to work there this morning.”

The younger man helps me down the hallway. On the way back to my room, I run into Uriah. “Uriah!” I shout. “How are you doing?” I give him a hug.

“I’m fine, Four.” He looks a little confused. “What’s going on?”

“I was looking for Tris.” I smile. “She’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

The Amity man helping me lets me go. “I’ll let you help your friend out,” he tells Uriah.

“Yeah, Tris is beautiful,” Uriah responds. Something tells me that normally, I would think that he was a little too quick to respond to that, but I don’t really care at this point.

“That nice man says that she went to the laundry room. Do you want to go there with me?”

“Uh, sure.” Uriah guides me to another part of the building. He opens the door and I walk inside.

“Hi Tris!” Uriah says. “Four wanted me to bring you here.” I watch Uriah leave. I wave to him as he goes.

“Are you okay?” Tris asks. She puts her hand on my shoulder.

I grin at her. “You look good, Tris,” I say.

She looks at me with concern. “What did they do to you?”

“They put me in a good mood.” I wrap my arms around her waist.

She pushes me away. “Not right now, okay? I think that you need to rest or something.” She looks over at Susan, who is also in the laundry room. “I’ll be right back. He needs to go back to his room.”

“I really want to kiss you, you know?” I whisper into her ear as she walks me to my room. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while now.”

“Maybe we’ll talk about that when you can think clearly again,” Tris responds. She opens my door. “I’ll come get you after I’m done with laundry duty, okay?”

“Okay.” I fall back on my bed. The soft bed bounces back. “That was fun!”

“See you later,” Tris says, closing the door behind her.

I stare up at the ceiling and think about how wonderful she is.

 

**Tris**

I don’t understand Amity. Peter attacks me last night, and when Tobias ends up getting angry with him the next day over it, he’s the one that is reprimanded. Whatever they did to him doesn’t really seem to hurt him, but it’s ridiculous. What kind of place is this anyway?

After dropping off Tobias in his room, I return to the laundry room. I must not be hiding my frustration well. Susan looks at me with a concerned look. “I don’t mean to pry, but what happened?”

I shove a load of clothing into the dryer. “Peter attacked me last night.”

Susan frowns. “And Four tried to help you?”

“He did help me. He stopped Peter.” I take a deep breath and grab a shirt to fold. “I don’t know what Peter would have done if Four hadn’t shown up.”

“Peter wasn’t a threat to you this morning though.”

I shrug. “Four isn’t Abnegation. I suppose that anger would be a natural reaction for most people.”

I continue to work on folding the massive pile of laundry that is in front of us. Susan doesn’t ask me about why Tobias was coming into the laundry room and giving me a hug. She doesn’t ask me anything about my relationship with him at all. I haven’t exactly been the good little Abnegation girl that I’m expected to be, but Susan hasn’t really called me on it. Typical perfect Abnegation. They generally stay out of other people’s business.

 

After I finish laundry duty with Susan, I go to Four’s room to see how he’s doing. He’s lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “Hi!” he says brightly.

“Hello. How have you been?”

“Never better!” he exclaims. “I was just looking at the boards on the ceiling. They’re very interesting.”

I frown. ‘Never better’ would not be a normal way for him to feel at this point. “Let’s go see Johanna,” I suggest. “Find out what’s going on.”

“That sounds like fun!” Tobias says. He seems to practically bounce off of the bed.

As we walk to Johanna’s office, Tobias puts his arm around my shoulder. “I love being with you,” he proclaims.

I knock on Johanna’s door before we come in. Johanna is sitting at her desk, studying a document sitting in front of her. She looks up as we come in.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“Four violated protocol. It will wear off shortly.”

“What will wear off?” I ask.

Tobias grins at Johanna.

“We gave him peace serum. It helps to improve his mood. We gave it to members of our community who have trouble keeping the peace. Tobias was causing trouble this morning.”

“Do you even have a clue as to what happened?” I raise my voice a little more than I plan. “Peter attacked me last night! Nothing happened to him. Four rescued me. He’s the one you discipline? It makes no sense.”

Johanna frowns, folding her hands in front of her. “While I am sorry for what happened, Peter was not causing trouble this morning.”

Tobias sits down in a chair. He looks up at the ceiling. I think he’s counting the tiles. “So you don’t care about justice, as long as everybody is not causing trouble in the present? Sometimes justice deters future misbehavior.”

“We generally do not have problems that require judicial action. Our faction is peaceful. Peter, as well as Four, are Dauntless. They are not known for being peaceful.”

“Everyone has trouble being peaceful,” I reply. “That’s human nature. You’d have to give it to everyone if you wanted everyone to be truly peaceful.”

“I’d give peace serum to everyone if I could,” Johanna replies. “Everything that we do here, we agree to do as a faction, though.”

“So drugging everybody is your solution to resolving conflict? It doesn’t fix humanity; it just puts a Band-Aid on it so they don’t face their real problems for a while.”

“It would cause people to be kinder, don’t you think?”

I frown and shake my head. I don’t get this faction.

“Whatever is going on between you two and that boy – Peter – is not something that we can forget. I’m afraid that you won’t be able to stay here for much longer.”

“We weren’t planning on it.”

“That’s good,” she smiles. “I want to maintain peace between Amity and all of the factions. If we need to keep our distance from each other to do so, then that is the best solution.”

I look at Tobias, who is currently spinning around in his chair, and roll my eyes. I hear him say “Whee” quietly to himself.

“Is that why you allowed Abnegation to die at the hands of the Erudite?”

“It is for the sake of peace that we remain uninvolved – ”

“It certainly will be a peaceful world when everybody is dead, or drugged.”

Johanna sighs. “It’s not my decision to make. At Amity, consensus rules.”

“Do you disagree with them?”

Her eyes scrunch up a little, as if she were in thought. “It’s not my place to disagree publicly; although inwardly, I may not feel the same.”

“Fair enough. Several of us will be leaving soon. I hope that this place will remain open as a safe house, however.”

“We will. Our decisions are not easily unmade.”

I grab Four’s hand. “Let’s go,” I tell him.

“What about Peter?” Johanna asks.

“I don’t really care what happens to Peter. You take care of him. After what happened last night, all I know is that I don’t want him with me.”

We open the door to walk out. “Tris,” she says as we start to walk out. “You might want to stay away from the bread, if you’re not interested in being affected by the peace serum.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” I tell her. No wonder why their bread tastes awful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope that you liked it.


	7. Escape from Amity

**Tobias**

My head starts to clear shortly before dinner. After regaining my senses, I feel angry. Amity is so interested in keeping peace that they lose their sense of justice.

Shortly before dinner, I hear a knock on my door. When I open it, I see Tris standing outside.

“Hi,” she says.

“Hi,” I reply. I feel a little self-conscious about my behavior today. “I’m – I’m sorry about this afternoon.” I don’t remember everything that I did today. I remember Tris taking me to see Johanna, and I remember touching Tris a little more than I probably should have, but I’m not sure exactly what I said or did for the entire time.

Tris smiles. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t inject yourself with that stuff.”

“I don’t even remember everything that I did.”

“Maybe it’s better that you don’t.” Tris’s cheeks turn pink. _What did I do?_ “It’s okay though. You might have just been a little more like… yourself… than you normally would be.”

I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, but Tris doesn’t seem to be upset about it, so I’m not going to worry about it.

We walk to the cafeteria together, and sit down next to Caleb and Susan.

“Where’s Uriah?” I ask.

Tris shrugs. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him all afternoon.”

Mother sits down next to us. “Uriah was out in the orchards today. I think that he was with some Amity girl.”

Uriah is a lot like his brother. Zeke has been quite the ladies’ man ever since I met him a couple of years ago.

Tris takes a bite of her fried chicken. “Mmm… this is so good!” she exclaims. “I never tasted anything like this in Abnegation.”

I take a bite out of mine. Abnegation eats plain food, and almost never eat anything fried. Although I have had fried chicken before, living in Dauntless, it does seem to taste better than what I’m used to. “I hope that they don’t put peace serum in the fried chicken,” I comment.

“I don’t think so,” Tris says, wrinkling her nose. “They put it into the bread, and it makes it taste funny. The opposite of good.”

“Maybe the chicken tastes better because it’s fresher,” Caleb comments.

“That must be it.” Tris nods her head.

The door on the other end of the room flings open. Uriah enters, red from obvious exertion and breathing hard. “Erudite’s coming,” he pants.

“Now?” I ask.

Uriah nods. “They’re driving their cars here right as we speak. We don’t even have time to run.”

“This is a safe house,” Susan says. “Conflict isn’t allowed here. We don’t have to run.”

“Amity is going to have a hard time resolving conflict without resolving to conflict on its own. Look what happened in Abnegation,” Marcus says from the table next to ours.

“Erudite will see us if we try to leave,” Peter says.

“I have a gun,” Mother says.

“So do I,” Tris adds.

“We can try to fight our way out,” I say.

“I have a better idea,” Tris says. “Let’s disguise ourselves. We can all pretend to be Amity.”

“Those of us who are not dressed like Amity should go to our rooms,” Marcus says.

“If you stay out here, try to act like Amity,” Mother adds.

“Let’s go,” Tris says, grabbing my hand. “We have to get our gun.” We head to the dormitories. Mother follows behind. Those in Abnegation dressed in gray follow behind us.

When we reach Tris’s room, she reaches under her mattress and grabs her gun. She also grabs her medicine off of her dresser and puts it in her pocket.

She frowns. “The hard drive,” she whispers.

She reaches behind the dresser and looks at it, turning it over in her hands. “This might have the only picture of my father, ever, on it,” she says quietly. “But what if Erudite get their hands on it? They could run that simulation again.”

I put my hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

She throws the hard drive onto the floor. She picks up a lamp off of a table next to the bed, and beats the hard drive with the base of the lamp until it is destroyed.

“You’re wearing grey,” I tell her.

“It was my dad’s.” She frowns.

“I can wear it under mine,” I say.

Tris grabs a red shirt from her dresser. She blushes. “I need to change.”

“I’ll turn away,” I offer, turning around.

Several seconds later, she says “I’m done.”

I need to put Tris’s father’s shirt on. I don’t normally change in front of people. Actually, I never change in front of anybody. I’m self-conscious of my tattoos.

“Would you like me to turn around?” She asks.

“It’s okay.”

I take off the red shirt that I’m wearing. Tris looks at me admiringly.

“I don’t really let people see me like this,” I say. Part of my Abnegation upbringing. I can feel heat rising to my cheeks.

“I don’t see why not,” she says. “You’re incredible.”

I look down.

“I’ve always wondered what your tattoo was of,” she says. “Could I see it?”

“Sure.”

She walks around me slowly. I feel her run her hand down my back, starting at my Dauntless tattoo that sits at the base of my neck. “These are amazing.”

“Thanks.”

“Why do you have all the faction symbols?”

Having all of the faction symbols tattooed on my back screams Divergent. Although I’m not afraid that Tris will turn me over to Dauntless leadership and have me killed, it’s still not something I’m interested in broadcasting. “I don’t want to just be brave, or selfless. I want to be smart, truthful, and kind as well.” I smile slightly. “I’m still working on the kind part.”

“Well, we can’t be perfect, can we?”

Her touch distracts me, but I know that Erudite will be looking for us at any moment. Grabbing her father’s shirt, I say “we have to get going.”

She nods.

I put on Tris’s father’s shirt, and put on a collared red shirt over it. “This will have to do. I need to cover up my tattoo.”

 

**Tris**

I hear a bell ring three times. This is Amity’s way of summoning everyone to the dining hall. As Tobias and I exit my room, I see Susan in the hallway. She still has pins in her hair, which is styled in an Abnegation-bun.

“You need to take these out,” I tell her quietly, taking out a pin. “Amity wouldn’t wear their hair like this.”

“Thanks,” she says. She pulls the rest of the pins out of her hair. It looks nice falling on her shoulders.

“It’s pretty that way,” I tell her. “I bet Caleb will like it.”

Susan blushes.

The Abnegation around us are walking silently.

Mother is in the hallway with us. “The kids need to play tag,” she says.

“What’s that?” Mary, who was one of my fellow initiates, asks.

“It’s a game where you chase each other,” Mother explains. “One person is ‘it’. Everybody else has to run away from them, or they become it instead.” She taps one child on the shoulder. “You’re it,” she says.

The child touches another nearby child. “You’re it now!” he says.

“Swing your arms,” Mother whispers to me.

I try to swing my arms as I walk. Caleb tickles Susan so that she laughs.

When we get to the dining hall, we don’t sit in the ‘Abnegation section.’ We spread out throughout the room.

I scan the room. There is a pair of Dauntless traitors standing by the door, holding guns. Several Erudite, dressed in blue, are milling about the room. The sight of them holding their guns makes me nervous.

I sit at a table next to Mother, with Four and Uriah sitting across from me. Caleb and Susan sit with Peter and Marcus at another table, and the rest of Abnegation are spread out throughout the room.

Mother pokes me in the ribs. “I’m telling you a joke,” she whispers to me, “that you find very funny.”

I put my hand over my mouth and giggle. I’m not used to laughing like that, but I guess that I must have been convincing, because she smiles at me.

Uriah punches Tobias on the arm. “Hey, what was that for!” Tobias says. Uriah just grins at him.

Johanna walks in with an Erudite woman wearing a bright blue shirt. I hear someone banging on a tabletop, and the room quiets down.

“Our Erudite and Dauntless friends are looking for some people,” Johanna says. “Several members of Abnegation, three members of Dauntless, and a former Erudite initiate.” She looks around the room and smiles. “In the interest of full cooperation, I told them that the people they were looking for were, in fact, here, but have since moved on. They would like permission to search the premises, which means we have to vote. Does anyone object to a search?”

We look around the room. Nobody says anything. I suppose if someone did object, it might make Amity look suspicious. Johanna looks over at the Erudite woman and nods.

“Three of you stick around,” the Erudite woman says to the Dauntless guards posted at the door. “The rest of you, search all the buildings and report back if you find anything. Go.”

I take a deep breath. They could find incriminating evidence. Broken hard drive pieces. Abnegation clothing, either left from me or in other Abnegation rooms. The lack of decorations in the dormitories.

I put my elbow on the table and rest my head on my hand, trying to look bored. Inside, I am everything but. I am full of butterflies inside as I watch the Dauntless guards walk up and down the aisles in the cafeteria. I’m glad that I’m small and plain, and don’t stand out.

Unfortunately, that is not the case with Tobias. His posture suggests pride, which is not an Amity trait. It’s a Dauntless one.

I watch as a Dauntless woman stops behind Tobias. She looks at him with suspicion. “Your hair is pretty short for an Amity,” she comments.

“It’s hot,” Tobias comments sharply.

He wears his hair like the Abnegation.

The woman reaches out her hand and puts her finger under the collar of his shirt. She pulls it away from his neck, revealing his tattoos.

Tobias quickly turns around, grabbing her wrist and pulling her forward so that she loses her balance. She knocks her head against the side of the table and falls on the floor. I hear a gunshot, and nearly everyone dives under a table or a bench.

Tobias picks up the Dauntless woman, placing her in front of him as a shield. He has her gun, and is firing across the room at the Dauntless solder across the room.

I pull out my gun. The metal against my fingers feels cold. I’ve never shot anybody before, but I’ve never been in this situation before. I take the safety off. A Dauntless man points his gun at me. I point mine at him and fire, hitting him in the stomach. He collapses to the ground. Tobias shoots at him, hitting him in the head.

I’m shaking. I can’t believe that I did that.

Tobias points his gun at the Erudite woman. “Say another word, and I’ll shoot,” he says to her.

“Whoever’s with us should start running,” Tobias shouts.

All around the room, the Abnegation stand up and head towards the door. Uriah, Caleb, and Mother are going towards the door as well.

I see a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. An Erudite woman raises a gun at a man in a yellow shirt standing by me. Not thinking, I dive at him to save him. I knock him to the ground, and the bullet lands harmlessly against the wall.

“Put the gun down,” Tobias says, pointing it at her. “I have a very good aim, and I’m betting that you don’t.”

I look in front of me, at the man I saved. Peter is staring at me. I saved his life. Neither of us say anything. I get up and once again, head for the door. Peter and Tobias are following me. Tobias is walking backwards so he can ensure that nobody tries firing on us as we escape.

As soon as he exits the building and closes the door behind him, we run.

We run through the center of the orchard. We can hear shouts behind us. I hear a car starting in the distance. Tobias is still with me. He grabs my hand.

Someone yells for us to split up. I grab Caleb’s arm; I can hear Susan behind him, panting for breath.

My arms and face are being scratched up by the corn stalks as we run through them. I’m gasping for breath, but I know that I have to keep going. I start to hear screams and gunshots. Nausea sweeps over me as I realize that the Abnegation are being massacred again.

We reach the fence. Tobias pushes on various places at the fence until he finds a hole. I see Mother and Uriah reach the fence several yards away from us. Tobias waves them over, and he holds up a portion of the fence so that Caleb, Susan, Mother, Uriah, and I can pass through the hole.

I look behind me. I see headlights glowing in the distance, but it is quiet.

“Where is everyone else?” Susan whispers.

I shake my head. “I don’t think that they made it.”

She starts to cry.

After everything that I’ve been through, I don’t know if I have any tears left.

Tobias grabs my hand. “We need to go,” he says. He starts walking.

We follow him through a field, staying away from the dirt road that leads to the Amity compound. We reach the train tracks, and walk along them towards the city. We’re out in the open, but at least I know that it will take some time for the Erudite to be able to drive around the fence to the gate in order to reach us.

“I have to… stop…” I hear Susan pant in the darkness behind us.

We stop, and Susan collapses to the ground. Caleb crouches on the ground next to her. Mother, Uriah, Tobias and I remain standing. Although I’m tired too, I want to keep moving.

We wait for about a minute. “We need to keep moving,” Tobias says. “We have to get somewhere safe. They’ll regroup and start looking for us.”

“Do they really care that much about us?” I ask.

“Some of us. I doubt that they were really interested in anyone outside of this group, with the exception of Marcus, who is most likely dead.”

He said it without emotion. Should he be sad, because his father had died? Should he feel relief? It’s hard to tell with other people’s emotions.

“Let’s go,” Uriah says.

Caleb pulls Susan up. He puts her arm across her back, urging her forward. We walk on into the night.


	8. Tobias Eaton is a Powerful Name

**Tobias**

We walk alongside the railroad tracks on our way to the city. It seems like the easiest way to go without getting lost. I balance along one of the rails. Tris walks from tie to tie. Natalie and Uriah are walking casually, while Caleb and Susan are in the back, barely keeping up. Eventually, I see the lights of the city turn off, with the exception of a small section in the Erudite area. It must be after midnight.

I start to hear a humming sound. Coming from the rails.

I lean over and put my palm on the rails. The vibration indicates that there’s a train coming.

I look back at Susan, who looks like she’s ready to collapse with exhaustion.

“The train is coming,” I announce. “We should get on.”

“What if it’s run by the Erudite?” Caleb asks.

“The Erudite would take the train to Amity to look for us,” Tris says.

“I’m sure that Susan could use a break,” Natalie adds. “She looks tired.”

“It’s worth the risk getting on,” I say.

We all get off the tracks. The light from the train car is shining at us in the distance, but is approaching rapidly. Caleb gives Susan instructions on how to get on the train.

We start to run as the train catches up to us. I easily hop into the middle car, as do Natalie and Uriah. Susan has difficulty keeping up with the train, but Caleb helps her on. Tris throws her body onto the train, landing on her back with her legs hanging off the edge. I pull her up the rest of the way.

When we are all in, I notice that we are not alone. Several pairs of eyes surround us.

The factionless.

 

Everyone in the car suddenly stands to their feet, meaning to intimidate us. A man with an eye patch is holding a gun to my head. I recognize him as Edward, the man who left Dauntless after Peter stabbed him in the eye with a butter knife.

Several of the other factionless around us are armed in some way. One old woman is holding a serrated bread knife. Another man has a makeshift weapon made out of a torn tin can. Someone else is holding a plank of wood with a nail driven through one end of it.

My pulse races, although I know that I shouldn’t be frightened, considering who my mother is. Nobody here with me knows about Evelyn though. I can imagine how they’re feeling.

“I’ve never seen the Amity armed before,” the woman holding the knife comments.

“They aren’t Amity,” Edward says. “They’re Dauntless.”

“Some of us are,” I say, “but not all.”

“Whatever you are,” the woman says, “you’ll have to get off this train if you want to stay alive.”

Susan’s eyes are filling with tears. “Please,” she begs, “we’ve been running… and the rest of them are dead and I don’t… I don’t think I can keep going. I…”

Tris takes a deep breath and looks at the ceiling. She seems frustrated.

“We’re running from the Erudite,” Caleb says. “If we get off, it will be easier for them to find us. So we would appreciate it if you let us ride into the city with you.”

“Yeah?” Edward says. “What have you ever done for us?”

“Edward,” Natalie says. “I helped you take care of that eye when you first joined the factionless.”

“Me and Susan have been collecting clothes for the factionless,” Tris comments.

“Maybe you have done something,” Edward says, nodding at Tris, Susan, and Natalie. “Everyone else? Not so much.”

I have to end this. I look straight at Edward. “You’re going to want to put down your gun,” I tell him. “My name is Tobias Eaton.”

With that, everyone puts down their weapons; some exchanged hushed whispers. My mother is powerful with the factionless.

Edward raises an eyebrow at me. “Eaton? Really? I have to admit, I didn’t see that one coming.” He scratches his head. “Fine, you can come. But when we get to the city, you’ve got to come with us. We know someone who’s been looking for you, Tobias Eaton.”

“Fair enough,” I reply.

I’m sure that it’s my mother that wants to see me. I guess my other family secret will be revealed shortly. I look over at Tris. I don’t know how she’s going to take this.

 

As we roll into the city, Tris and I take a seat at the doorway of the car, dangling our legs over the edge. I hold her hand.

“Do you know who it is?” Tris asks.

I nod.

“Who, then?”

“It’s hard to explain,” he says. “I have a lot to tell you.”

 

After a while, the factionless tell us to get off. We’re in the factionless sector, just a short distance away from where I intended to set up my apartment after I decided to join the factionless. Since the war started on the evening that I ‘went factionless’ I’ve been playing along with the fact that I was still Dauntless. Since nobody noticed, I don’t feel the need to make my decision public until there is a reason to.

“What if we get hurt?” Susan whines.

Tris grabs her hand. “We can jump together. We’ll be okay. We might land on our knees, but it’ll be all right.” I smile. Tris hasn’t jumped off that many trains, but she’s already helping others with it.

“Okay.”

“On three,” she says. “One, two, three.” With that, they jump off. I follow her. Behind me, Uriah, Natalie, and Caleb hop off.

Tris and Susan are lying on the ground. Susan appears to be okay, but Tris is grabbing her shoulder.

I walk over to Tris, pulling her up by her uninjured right hand. “How’s your shoulder?” I ask.

“It’s okay. Landing jarred it a little. Fortunately, I brought my pain medication with me.” She looks up at me. “I don’t think I’m letting it heal very well. I keep using it or landing on it, or something.”

“You’ll have plenty of time for it to heal once all of this is over.”

“Yeah.” Tris laughs nervously. “If we don’t die first.”

Edward leads us into a dirty alleyway that smells like garbage. I see flies swarming around piles of trash alongside the buildings. Part of me wants to gag, but I’ve been in worse places before. My Abnegation and Dauntless background helps me deal with things that otherwise would make me squeamish.

As I breathe in, something hard but small is sucked down into my throat. I must have breathed in a fly. “Ugh,” I say. “I think I just breathed in a fly.” As if the smell of rotting garbage around me wasn’t bad enough. I feel complete disgust, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

“Just don’t chase it down with a spider,” Tris says playfully. “I heard about an old woman who swallowed a fly once. She chased it down with a spider and a few other things. It didn’t turn out well for her.”

“So glad that you feel my pain,” I say.

We arrive at a brick building with a steel door and dirty windows. Inside, I see the dirty faces of several factionless. Women feeding their babies. Children playing tag. Others sipping on water bottles, or eating out of tin cans.

“Come on,” Edward says. “She’s back here.”

The factionless stare at us as we walk through the building.

“What is this? Why are all the factionless meeting together?” Caleb asks.

“You thought they – we – were all split up,” Edward says to us. “Well, they were, for a while. Too hungry to do much of anything except look for food. But then the Stiffs started giving them food, clothes, tools, everything. And they got stronger, and waited. They were like that when I found them, and they welcomed me.”

I bite my lower lip. I’m not particularly excited about seeing my mother, and I have no idea how Tris is going to react. The subject of my mother never came up, which is why I never really mentioned it to her. I don’t really think of Evelyn often, but still, it’s a pretty big secret to keep from someone.

Tris is quiet, and looks confused, but not particularly concerned. Natalie looks angry.

We stop at a metal door. Edward pounds on it with his fist.

“Wait, you said they were waiting?” Caleb asks. “What were they waiting _for_ , exactly?”

“For the world to fall apart,” Edward says. “And now it has.”

A woman with a lazy eye opens the door. She eyes us with concern. “Strays?” she asks.

“Not hardly, Therese,” Edward replies. “This one’s Tobias Eaton.” He points over his shoulder at me.

She examines me carefully. “He certainly is. Hold on.”

I take a deep breath.

“You know who she’s going to get, don’t you,” Caleb comments.

This is hard enough without an Erudite’s nosiness. “Caleb, please shut up.”

Therese lets us in a few minutes later. We’re in an old boiler room full of machinery. After Therese leads us through the maze boilers and control boxes, I see my mother sitting behind a table.

 

**Tris**

Today has certainly been an eventful day. We’ve been shot at, forced to flee from Amity, and ended up on a train where a car full of factionless wanted to kill us, but didn’t because of Tobias. Now, we’re standing in an old building inhabited by the factionless.

Abnegation initiation prepared me for the sight of the factionless. We spent quite a lot of time volunteering among them: picking up trash, giving them something to eat, and seeing if they had any medical needs. I knew that many of them liked to congregate together, although Edward’s revelation that they were waiting for the world to fall apart was new to me.

We’re standing in front of a middle-aged woman with curly black hair, stern features and olive skin. Tobias squeezes my hand. Upon further inspection, I notice that the woman sitting in front of us has some familiar features: a hooked nose, spare upper lip, stick-out ears, and a strong jaw. She looks a lot like Tobias.

“Evelyn,” he says, his voice shaking.

Evelyn was the name of Tobias’s mother and Marcus’s wife. She died years ago though. Or at least, I thought she did. I went to her funeral.

“Hello,” she says, examining Tobias as she walks around the table. “You look older.”

“Yes, well, the passage of time tends to do that to a person.”

He must not be surprised to see her alive. How long has he known?

“So, you’ve finally come,” Evelyn smiles.

“Not for the reason you think. We were running from Erudite, and the only chance of escape we had required me to tell your poorly armed lackeys my name.”

He sounds bitter. I’m not sure what she did to make him so angry. I’m sure that if I suddenly discovered that my mother was alive, after thinking that she was dead for years, that I certainly wouldn’t be upset about it. I’m sure that I wouldn’t be speaking to her disrespectfully, like Tobias is, either.

On the table is a map of the city. Markers are placed all over the map, but I’m not sure what they mean. On the wall in front of us is a chalkboard covered with a chart. I can’t understand what that is supposed to represent.

“Hmmm…” Evelyn continues to smile, but she doesn’t look amused. “Introduce me to your fellow refugees.”

Evelyn looks down at our hands, which are clasped together. Tobias lets go of me. He waves a hand at me. “This is Tris Prior. Her brother, Caleb, her mother – ”

“Natalie Prior,” she says, her lips pinched together. “Yes, I know her.”

My mother looks irritated. “I guess your secret is out now.”

After an awkward silence, Tobias continues. “This is Uriah Pedrad, and Susan Black.”

Evelyn looks at me and frowns. “I know of several Priors, including Caleb and Natalie, but I don’t know any named Tris. Beatrice, however…”

“Well, I know of several living Eatons, but none of them are named Evelyn,” I say sarcastically.

“Evelyn Johnson is the name I prefer. Particularly among a pack of Abnegation.”

“Tris is the name I prefer,” I reply. “Although not all of us are Abnegation.”

“Interesting friends you’ve made,” Evelyn says. The look that she gives him seems to have a touch of disgust to it.

Caleb is standing next to the chart on the wall. “These are population counts?” he asks. “And… what? Factionless safe houses?” He looks at the top of the chart. It says _7……. Grn Hse_. “I mean, these places, on the map? They’re safe houses, like this one, right?”

“That’s a lot of questions.” Evelyn raises an eyebrow. Tobias must have gotten that expression, as well as his distaste for questions, from his mom. “For security purposes, I will not answer any of them. Anyway, it is time for dinner.”

Although we ate several hours ago, we never were able to finish, since we were interrupted by the Erudite. We follow her through the maze of machinery once more. Tobias walks alongside her.

“I’m not stupid,” I hear her tell Tobias quietly. “I know you want nothing to do with me – though I still don’t quite understand why – ”

Tobias snorts.

“But I will extend my invitation again. We could use your help here, and I know you are like-minded about the faction system – ”

“Evelyn,” he says. “I chose Dauntless.”

I also know that he went factionless, although since the war began on the same day he left Dauntless, I’m sure that he’s still officially considered Dauntless. Tobias isn’t advertising that he left. Perhaps it is to his advantage to remain in Dauntless, for now at least.

“Choices can be made again,” Evelyn says.

“What makes you think I’m interested in spending time anywhere near _you_?” He stops walking and faces her.

“Because I’m your mother,” she says. There seems to be a hint of sadness in your voice. “Because you’re my son.”

If Tobias doesn’t want to be near his mother, why did he feel the need to go factionless, knowing that she was here?

“You really don’t get it,” he says. “You don’t have the vaguest conception of what you’ve done to me. I don’t want to join up with your little band of factionless. I want to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“My little band of factionless is twice the size of Dauntless,” Evelyn says. “You would do well to take it seriously. Its actions may determine the future of this city.”

She notices that she has an audience. She walks off, leaving me and everybody else behind her.

I mull over her words: _twice the size of Dauntless_. Could the factionless population have grown to be that large?

Natalie, Uriah, Caleb, and Susan follow Evelyn. I stay behind with Tobias.

Tobias looks at me.

“How long have you known?” I ask him.

“About a year.” He leans against the wall. “She sent a coded message to me in Dauntless, telling me to meet her at the train yard. I did, because I was curious, and there she was. Alive. It wasn’t a happy reunion, as you can probably guess.”

“Why did she leave Abnegation?”

“She had an affair. No wonder, since my father…” he shakes his head. “Well, let’s just say that Marcus wasn’t any nicer to her than he was to me.”

“Is that why you’re angry with her? Because she was unfaithful to him?”

He shakes his head. “No, that’s not why I’m angry.”

I walk towards him. He’s angry, and I don’t want to upset him anymore. “So, why are you upset with her then?”

“She had to leave my father, I get that. But did she think of taking me with her?”

I pinch my lips together. “So she left you with _him_.”

No wonder he hates her. She left him with an abusive father.

He kicks at the floor. “Yeah. She did.”

I reach out to grab his hand. I decide not to pry any further.

“It seems to me, that the factionless are better friends than enemies,” he says quietly.

“Maybe. But what would the cost of that friendship be?”

“I don’t know,” he says, shaking his head. “We may not have many other options though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Comments are always appreciated!


	9. Night with the Factionless

**Tris**

We sit down on the ground in front of a fire that one of the factionless started. Most of us are starving. Running for our lives, walking down the train tracks, and then being marched into this building with the factionless tends to build up an appetite.

The factionless are using a large metal bowl as a fire pit. A few cans were set at the edge of the fire to warm them up, and are now being passed around. We all were given our own spoon and fork to eat with, but the food is shared. I’m trying not to think about how many diseases could be spread this way. I take a spoonful of soup. Despite my queasiness about sharing food this way, I’m at least glad to be getting rid of my hunger.

Across from the fire pit, I notice a face that looks somewhat familiar. A very large, blonde-haired teen.

“Beatrice, right?” he says to me.

“Tris, now,” I say. I think. Where did I see him before? “You’re Al, correct?”

His smile turns into a bright beam. “Yes.”

I remember where I saw him from. I helped bandage his leg up when he cut it on a rusty piece of metal. “How’s your leg?”

“It’s fine, thank you. I went to the hospital like you suggested.”

Edward sits down next to me and I hand him the can of soup.

“So, you were all from Abnegation?”

“Most of us,” I say. “Uriah has been Dauntless his whole life. Tobias was Abnegation, but transferred to Dauntless.” I didn’t think that it would be a smart idea to add that Caleb transferred to Erudite.

“And Caleb’s your brother, and Natalie is your mom.”

I nod.

“So your whole family got caught up in the war.”

I shrug. “The way that things are going, it looks like everyone will, eventually. Erudite raided Amity today, looking for some of us. I guess that the only faction that hasn’t gotten involved in some way is Candor. Can they really say that they’re going to be safe as well?”

“I transferred to Dauntless,” Edward says. “I wanted to be Dauntless for about as long as I can remember. I was doing pretty well too, until one of my fellow initiates stabbed me in the eye.

“I’m so sorry. Tobias mentioned that someone was stabbed.”

“If I had stayed in Erudite I probably wouldn’t have been stabbed, but that would have come with its own problems.”

“I was in Erudite,” Therese says, shaking her head. “I had to leave though.”

“What happened?”

“I wasn’t smart enough.” Therese shrugs, handing Edward a can of beans. “I didn’t get a high enough score on my initiation intelligence test. They told me ‘Spend your entire life cleaning up the research labs, or leave.’ And I left.”

I pass the beans to Tobias. He is staring at the fire, apparently deep in thought.

“Are many of you from Erudite?” I ask.

Therese shakes her head. “Most are from Dauntless, actually.” Edward scowls. “Then Erudite, then Candor, then a handful of Amity. No one fails Abnegation initiation though, so we have very few of those, except for a bunch who survived the simulation attack and came to us for refuge.”

“Why are all of the people from Dauntless here?”

“They have one of the worst initiations. It’s been worse in the last couple of years. I guess that everyone who was brave enough and strong enough used to be able to get through, but now they have mandatory cuts. Only the best people get through now.”

“That’s terrible.”

“I had the choice to either leave or have Four throw knives at me.” Al is glaring at Four.

“It wasn't really my choice,” Four comments. “If I didn’t do it, Eric would have, and his aim isn’t that good.”

“You threw knives at him?” I ask.

Tobias nods. “It wasn’t exactly something that I wanted to do.”

“Dauntless also have this old-age thing.”

“Old-age thing?” I ask.

“Once the Dauntless reach a certain level of physical deterioration, they are asked to leave,” Tobias says. “In one way or another.”

“What’s the other way?” I’m afraid of the answer. Coming from Abnegation, I find it hard to fathom that people would treat others in their own faction this way.

“Let’s just say, that for some people, death is preferable to factionlessness.”

Growing up in Abnegation, we’ve always spent a lot of time around the factionless. I’ve often thought that death would probably be better than factionlessness myself.

“Those people are idiots,” Edward scoffs. “I’d rather be factionless than Dauntless.”

“How fortunate that you ended up where you did then,” Tobias says coldly.

Edward snorts, handing me a can of peas. “Fortunate? Yeah, I’m so fortunate, with my one eye and all.”

“I seem to recall hearing rumors that you provoked that attack,” Tobias says.

Edward smirks. “There was an inciting incident. In which Peter did not come out the victor. But it certainly didn’t warrant a butter knife to the eye.”

“Peter was the guy who stabbed you?” I ask.

“Yeah. Do you know him?”

“He attacked me when we were in Amity. He sounds like quite the guy,” I say sarcastically.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Tobias says, “he got shot in the arm from a foot away during the simulation attack.”

Edward’s smirk almost grows into a smile. “Who did that? You?”

Tobias nods.

I feel myself getting tired as I look into the flames, which are dancing around the wood in the metal bowl. All of these new revelations are hard to take. I remember watching my father gasping for breath as we climbed up the path in the pit. When Tobias told me that he had chosen to become factionless, I could hardly believe it. Learning all of these new things, I have a greater understanding of why he might have wanted to make that choice. Although I’ve never really felt like I completely belonged in Abnegation, I feel a little better about making that decision. Not that it matters much, any more.

“So how are things going right now?” Tobias asks. “Did all the Dauntless side with Erudite? Has Candor done anything?”

“Dauntless is split in half,” Edward mumbles, his mouth full of food. “Half at Erudite headquarters, half at Candor headquarters. What’s left of Abnegation is with us. Nothing much has happened yet. Except for whatever happened to you, I guess.”

Tobias nods.

I’m glad that at least half of Dauntless is with us.

I eat until I am full. Tobias gets a couple of sleeping pallets and blankets out for us, and we find an empty corner to lie down.

As I watch Tobias untie his shoes, I see the Amity symbol peeking out from the exposed skin at the small of his back. I smile, thinking of the brief moment where he showed me his tattoo. I walk over to him and put my arms around him, placing my hand over the tattoo.

He returns the embrace and kisses me on the forehead. “I wish we were alone,” he says quietly.

“I do too,” I reply. Although true, part of me is afraid of what would happen if we actually were alone.

 

**Tobias**

I have trouble falling asleep. I keep thinking about the events of the day. Running into my mother again. Tris. And what was it about my mother’s reaction to Natalie Prior that seemed so odd? It’s almost like they don’t like each other or something.

I watch Tris fall asleep, which she seems to do easily tonight. I listen to the hushed conversations around me.

After lying awake for what feels like hours, I see someone approach me. I look up to see Evelyn.

“We should talk,” she says quietly.

I sit up. I’m not sleeping anyway. “What do you want to talk about?”

“About getting your help, and getting Dauntless on board.”

I don’t even know if I want to help her. I certainly don’t have any pull with Dauntless.

“You’ll have to tell me what’s going on here if you expect me to consider helping you,” I say. “Though I’m still not sure why you need me at all.”

Evelyn twists her curls in her hair with one of her fingers. “What would you like to know, exactly?”

“Tell me about the chart. And the map.” I should at least have a good idea of what’s going on before I even consider helping.

She sits down next to me. “Your friend was correct in thinking that the map and the chart listed all of our safe houses. He was wrong about the population counts… sort of. The numbers don’t document all the factionless – only certain ones. And I’ll bet you can guess which ones those are.”

“I’m not in the mood for guessing.”

“The Divergent,” Evelyn sighs. “We’re documenting the Divergent.”

The Divergent? Ever since I found out that I was Divergent, it’s been drilled into my head that divergence is something to hide, not to document. “How do you know who they are?”

I hear Tris stirring. She rolls over on her other side. Good. She must still be asleep.

“Before the simulation attack, part of the Abnegation aid effort involved testing the factionless for a certain genetic anomaly.” I wonder if Natalie was involved. “Sometimes that testing involved re-administering the aptitude test. Sometimes it was more complicated than that. But they explained to us that they suspected we might have the highest Divergent population of any group in the city.”

“I don’t understand. Why – ?”

“Why would the factionless have a high Divergent population?” Evelyn lifts and eyebrow and smirks. “Obviously those who can’t confine themselves to a particular way of thinking would be most likely to leave a faction or fail its initiation, right?”

That seems obvious. I think about how I left Dauntless to become factionless right before the war started. My Abnegation way of thinking was probably what made it difficult to live with the new Dauntless rules.

“I wasn’t going to ask that. I want to know why you care how many Divergent there are.”

“The Erudite are looking for manpower. They found it temporarily in Dauntless. Now they’ll be looking for more, and we’re the obvious place, unless they figure out that we’ve got more Divergent than any other group. Just in case they don’t, I want to know how many people we’ve got who are resistant to simulations.”

“Fair enough,” I say. I’m not completely convinced though. Divergence is a dangerous secret. “Why were the Abnegation so concerned with finding the Divergent? It wasn’t to help Jeanine, was it?”

“Of course not,” she snorts. “I’m afraid I don’t know. The Abnegation were reluctant to provide information that only serves to relieve curiosity. They told us as much as they believed we should know.”

“Strange,” I say quietly. I should probably talk to Natalie about this before taking any sort of action. She might be willing to fill me in on the missing pieces.

“Perhaps you should ask your father about it,” she says. “He was the one who told me about you.”

“About me? What about me?”

“That he suspected you were Divergent. He was always watching you,” she says. “Noting your behavior. He was very attentive to you. That’s why… that’s why I thought you would be safe with him. Safer with him than with me.”

I frown. I was about as far from safe as you can get, without being in an actual war zone.

“I wish – ”

I feel anger start to build up. There isn’t anything that she can do to make up for the past now. “Don’t you dare try to apologize. This is not something you can bandage with a word or two and some hugging or something.” I cross my arms in front of me.

“Okay. I won’t.”

“For what purpose are the factionless uniting? What do you intend to do?”

“We want to usurp Erudite. Once we get rid of them, there’s not much stopping us from controlling the government ourselves.”

 _And what good would that do?_ “That’s what you expect me to help you with. Overthrowing one corrupt government and instating some kind of factionless tyranny. Not a chance.”

“We don’t want to be tyrants. We want to establish a new society. One without factions.”

Without factions, nobody knows where they belong. It’s hard to imagine.

“Some people like their factions. What are you going to do for them? Lie, and tell them that if they like their faction, they can keep it?”

“Don’t be silly. Most probably won’t mind.”

 _I doubt that._ “So how are you going to usurp Erudite?”

“Sometimes drastic change requires drastic measures.” Evelyn shrugs. “I imagine it will involve a high level of destruction.”

I don’t like the idea of destruction. I’ve seen enough of it in the past week. I particularly don’t like the idea of destruction in order to institute a factionless order which has no guarantee of not becoming tyrannical.

“As for why we need you,” Evelyn continues, “in order to do this, we will need Dauntless’s help. They have the weapons and the combat experience. You could bridge the gap between us and them.”

I snort. “Do you think that I’m important to the Dauntless? Because I’m not. I actually left to go be factionless the day before the war began, although I don’t really think anybody realized that I had left. Anyway, I’m just someone who isn’t afraid of much.”

“Whether you left or not, if nobody realizes that you left, you might as well still be Dauntless. You can _become_ important.” Evelyn stands. “I am sure you can find a way, if you want to. Think about it.”

She pulls her curly hair back into a pony tail. “The door is always open.”

I lay back down. I’m not sure what to think. Sure, nobody knows that I left Dauntless, and I probably could become more important to them if I wanted to. The question is, do I want to, and do I want to help my mother?

I hear Tris stirring again. Her eyes are closed and her breathing is even, so I don’t think that I woke her up. Good.

Even though I still have a million things going through my mind, I lie down and drift off to sleep.


	10. Power Should Go to Those That Don't Want It

**Tobias**

Even though it took me forever to fall asleep the night before, I wake up early. A few people are already awake. I look around and see that Natalie is already up. I get up to see her. I need to ask her a few questions.

Natalie, behaving true to her chosen faction, is fussing over a factionless man with a cut in his leg. She’s tending to his wound, trying to prevent infection from setting in. I watch her for a minute. When I see that she is done, I sit down next to her.

“Do you mind if I talk to you for a minute?” I ask her.

“Sure, Four,” she replies. “Is that the name that you prefer?”

“Most of the time.”

“There’s a spot over there where we can talk.” She leads me over to a corner of the room, away from the cots of sleeping people and the few awake people that are milling about. “What’s on your mind?”

I put my hands in my pockets. How do I bring this up? “I was talking to my mom last night,” I begin. “I need to try to make a decision on something, but I was wondering about some tests that were being conducted on the factionless.”

She looks at me thoughtfully. “The tests to find out about the Divergent population?”

I nod. “Why did Abnegation need to find out how many Divergent people there are? Isn’t it dangerous to be Divergent?”

She sighs. “Some people think of Divergence as a dangerous thing. If you’re Divergent, you can’t be controlled as easily. For example, Jeanine Matthews wants power. She put all of the Dauntless under a simulation serum in an attempt to get it. The serum doesn’t work on the Divergent, so she sees them as a threat.” She pauses in thought for a moment. “The truth is, however, that Divergence is actually a good thing.”

That’s the first time anybody has ever said anything like that to me. I’ve always been told to hide my divergence. Of course, the people who were a threat to me were those who were in power, who might have an interest in controlling the population.

“Divergence can be a good thing?”

“Think about it. The five factions all promote some sort of virtue. They want you to be brave, smart, selfless, kind, or truthful. Why does it have to be just one?”

I think about the faction symbols tattooed on my back. “I agree with you; but that still doesn’t explain why you were testing for Divergence.”

“Now that... is a long story. One that is incredibly difficult to believe.”

I frown. “I don’t understand.”

“The Erudite have a video. They took it from us in Abnegation. It’s probably one of the triggers that sparked this war to begin with. The video pretty much explains everything that you need to know. I would like to get the video back so I can show it to everyone. It changes everything.”

“How so?”

“Let’s just say that the world is not as it appears. Some of what you think is true, really isn’t.”

If the Erudite have life-shattering information and refuse to share it, maybe I should ally with Evelyn. At least then we could get the video.

“I have a question about the video. Do you think that it would be a good idea to attack Erudite in order to get it back?”

“Do you think that is really necessary?” Of course she would say that; she’s Abnegation. “There are better ways to go about accomplishing that.” She looks at me thoughtfully. “I know that’s what Evelyn would like to do, but you may want to think about all of those meetings that Abnegation used to have to go to. What was one of the things that we were always taught? Those that seek power for themselves are probably not the ones you should be giving it to. You may want to keep that in mind.”

I nod. “Thank you.”

Natalie is right. If someone is seeking out power for themselves, then perhaps they shouldn’t be someone that we can trust with power. Evelyn shouldn’t be entrusted with power; but then again, neither should the Erudite. That doesn’t mean that I have to completely reject all of Evelyn’s ideas, but I should take everything that she says with a grain of salt.

 

**Tris**

When I wake up, I ache all over. I don’t even want to think of the events of yesterday, or even the events since the attack on Dauntless. It hasn’t really been that long, but it seems like a lifetime ago where my biggest worries were about being in a faction of selfless people when I personally didn’t feel all that selfless myself. Perhaps hardship has a way of taking your mind off your own troubles.

I notice Tobias at the other end of the room, talking to my mother. I wonder what that’s all about. I heard him talking to Evelyn last night as well. I wonder if today’s conversation has anything to do with yesterday’s.

I get up and look for the bathrooms. I need to take a shower. When I find the bathroom, several women are already there, including Susan, who sees me and greets me. Half of the people in the bathroom are naked; other than Susan and I, the rest of them don’t seem to care. The Abnegation in me is uncomfortable.

Susan has two towels with her. “I have an idea,” she says, holding up a towel and turning her back, so that I can have a little privacy. I smile, and quickly wash myself with the bar of soap that is sitting on the sink. “Thank you,” I say.

“You’re welcome,” she says. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.” Even though Susan and I have known each other for our entire lives, we’ve never been extraordinarily close. It’s not really Susan’s fault; people don’t generally form close friendships in Abnegation. I know that Susan is only asking me to be polite. “How are you, Susan?”

“Better. Therese told me there is a large group of Abnegation refugees in one of the factionless safe houses.”

“Oh?” I comment, lathering my hair with soap and then rinsing my hair out under the sink. “Are you going to go?”

“Yes. Do you want to go as well?”

“Maybe,” I answer, but I’m thinking probably not. I’d like to find out where Four is going. I turn on the faucet and start to get dressed. It’s too hot today to wear long pants. I dry myself off and dress quickly. I have to wear the same red shirt that I had on yesterday. I’d rather wear something clean, but I don’t really have any other options at this point.

“I suspect some of the factionless women have spare clothes,” Susan comments.

“You’re probably right. Okay, your turn.” I hold up the towel for her, returning the favor so that she can wash herself and get dressed. My shoulder burns, but I do my best to ignore the pain. She did it for me.

“This is a situation I never thought we would be in together,” I laugh quietly. “Bathing from the sink of an abandoned building, on the run from the Erudite.”

“I thought we would live near each other. Go to social events together. Have our kids walk to the bus stop together.”

I sigh. “I suppose that it still could happen, but who knows where we’ll be in a week, let alone far enough into the future where we could possibly have kids.”

“I’m done,” she says after a while. “Can you hand me that towel?” I close my eyes and hand her the towel that I’ve been holding. When we see Therese walk in, Susan asks for some spare clothes. I feel much better when I am able to put on a baggy, but clean, black shirt and jeans. Susan has a white Candor shirt with a collar, which she buttons up to the very top button. It looks very uncomfortable, but Susan definitely belongs in Abnegation, so I don’t think that she minds.

After entering the large room again, I watch as some of the factionless leave, carrying buckets of paint. “They’re going to write a message to the other safe houses.” Evelyn comments, startling me. “On one of the billboards. Codes formed out of personal information – so-and-so’s favorite color, someone else’s childhood pet.”

I wonder why she would be telling me this information. I turn around to look at her. She has a prideful expression on her face.

“Clever. Your idea?”

“It was, actually.” She shrugs, trying to sound as if she feels it is unimportant. “I  
was Erudite before I was Abnegation.”

“You weren’t interested in living a life in academia, then?”

“Not really. I suppose your father felt the same way.”

I stare at her. My father? Erudite? He always hated that faction.

“You didn’t know?” she frowns at me. “I apologize, I forgot that faction members rarely discuss their old factions.”

“What?” my voice is cracking.

“Your father was born in Erudite. His parents were friends with Jeanine Matthew’s parents, before they died. Your father and Jeanine used to play together as children. I used to watch them pass books back and forth in school.”

I find it hard to imagine my father and Jeanine as children, passing notes back and forth to each other. It’s hard to even imagine my father dressed in Erudite blue. I think for a minute. My father never really did have the quiet demeanor typical of those in Abnegation, and his hatred of the Erudite was so vehement, that it wouldn’t be surprising if it was personal.

“I’m sorry, Beatrice,” Evelyn says. “I didn’t mean to reopen closing wounds.”

I frown. I know that she meant to hurt me for some reason. “It’s okay,” I say quietly. One thing that I’ve learned in Abnegation is that sometimes taking the bait when someone else is trying to goad you into a fight is not worth it. This seems to be one of those times.

While my personal feelings are not worth battling over, Tobias is. I look around the room and see Caleb sharing a jar of peanut butter with Susan, but I don’t see Tobias around anywhere. “I’m not stupid,” I say quietly. “I hope that you’re not trying to use Tobias. I’ll tell him if I think that you are.” I try to say it as nicely as possible, but you can only spare a person’s feelings so much with a statement like that.

“My dear girl,” she says, with a condescending, sickenly sweet smile on her face. “I am his family. I am permanent. You are only temporary.”

I smile back at her. It’s hard to be selfless responding to a statement like that. “Yes, I can see the attraction there. When your mom abandons you and your dad beats you up, I can see how important family can feel to someone.”

I have to walk away before I say anything else that I might regret. My hands are shaking with rage. I join Caleb on the floor, and he passes me the jar of peanut butter. It feels strange to eat peanut butter with my fingers, in a jar that other people are sticking their fingers into, but this is the factionless way. Susan has gotten up to help clean with some of the factionless.

I debate to myself whether to tell Caleb or not about father. I don’t exactly want to give Caleb any reason to go back to Erudite, so I decide not to tell him for now.

“I’m going to join the Abnegation,” Caleb says. “Susan wants to go, and so do I. Do you want to come with us?”

I’m not exactly sure that I want to.

I shake my head. “I don’t think that I really should right now. I don’t really want reminders of what happened right now. It’s hard enough to deal with as it is.” The answer I give him is partially true, but the fact that Tobias won’t be there also has something to do with it. “I think that I’ll go to Candor headquarters, to see what’s going on.”

“Okay,” Caleb nods. “I’ll try to join you soon. Be careful, though.”

“Aren’t I always?” I ask, feigning innocence.

Caleb shakes his head. “No, I think that ‘reckless’ would be a better word to describe you.”

I take another scoop of peanut butter. Looking up, I see Tobias and Uriah coming out of the bathroom, discussing something. I smile at the sight of Tobias in his black t-shirt and jeans. His eyes catch mine, and I can tell that it is time to leave

 

**Tobias**

After talking to Natalie, I’m still unsure of what I should do with my mother. It would be good to have an ally against Erudite, who are likely to strike again, but I don’t really like what Evelyn has in mind either.

I find Uriah, and we find some clean, black, Dauntless clothing to change into. When we exit the bathroom and enter the main room, my eyes spot Tris on the other side of the room, sitting next to Caleb. “There’s Tris,” I comment.

“You sure she’s going to want to come with us?” Uriah asks. “She might want to go with the Abnegation group.”

“Perhaps,” I say. “We have to ask her though.”

“For someone in Abnegation, she seems to be pretty friendly with you.”

“We met a while ago,” I say. We’ve almost reached her. “I like her. A lot.”

Tris smiles as we approach her. “Were you planning on going to Candor with us? Or did you want to go with the Abnegation group?”

Tris shakes her head. “I’m trying to forget what happened with my dad. Plus, I’d rather go with you.”

“Okay.” Tris stands up and brushes herself off. She’s wearing an oversized black t-shirt and blue jeans. “You look good in black,” I whisper to her. She smiles back at me.

It takes us a while to reach Candor headquarters, which is located inside a giant building. The sign on the front of the building says MERC   IS MART; it used to say MERCHANDISE MART, but the missing letters have fallen off over the years as the city has decayed. Today, everybody calls it the Merciless Mart, because everybody in Candor is truthful to the point of being merciless. Even the Candor use it to describe their headquarters.

I’ve never been to Candor headquarters, and I don’t know what to expect. We stop outside the doors before going inside.

“Let’s do this,” Uriah says, opening the door.

We could have all stayed behind with the factionless, but that wouldn’t accomplish much. My mother wants me to become important with Dauntless. I don’t really want to ally with Evelyn, but I figure that it wouldn’t hurt to become important. It would allow me to cause change, rather than have to deal with whatever changes everybody else is trying to impress upon me.

We enter a large, well-lit lobby. The floor in front of us is made out of black marble; in the center of the floor, in white, is the unbalanced scale that represents Candor. Armed Dauntless are all over the place.

A Dauntless soldier with her arm in a sling approaches us. She is pointing a gun at me. “Identify yourselves,” she says. I recognize her as Allison, one of the Dauntless members who is a couple of years older than I am. She normally works on the fence. I’ve met her a couple of times.

“Four,” I say. “This is Tris and Uriah. Uriah and I are Dauntless; Tris is Abnegation.”

Allison’s eyes seem to light with recognition. Why, I don’t know. Sure, I only have four fears, but it’s not that big of a deal. She keeps her gun pointed at me. “Some help here?” she asks over her shoulder.

“Is there a problem?” I ask.

“Are you armed?”

“Of course I’m armed. I’m Dauntless, aren’t I?”

“Stand with your hands behind your head,” she orders. Tris gives me a puzzled look. Uriah, who is normally good-natured, is frowning.

“We walked through the front door,” Tris says. “If we were here to hurt you, do you think that we would have done that?”

Allison shrugs. I put my hands behind my head. Dauntless soldiers surround us. One of them pats the inside of my legs, looking for weapons. Another takes my gun from me. Someone else is patting down Uriah.

“I have a gun at my waist behind my back. I was recently attacked, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t touch me,” I hear Tris say.

“Sorry,” the guard dealing with Tris says. He takes her gun without touching her.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

I notice the guards looking at each other.

“I’m sorry,” Allison says, “but we were instructed to arrest you upon your arrival.”

“What for?” Uriah asks. Nobody answers him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that I came up with how I'm going to end book 4 of this series :-).
> 
> Thank you for reading. Comments are always welcome.


	11. Crimes Against Humanity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tris, Tobias, and Uriah await trial.

**Tris**

The Dauntless guards don’t handcuff us, but they do surround us and force us to walk to the elevators. Uriah and I protest, asking them why we are under arrest, but nobody wants to answer us. They don’t even want to look at us. Tobias is silent. Eventually, I realize that asking questions is futile, so I stop saying anything. Uriah must be thinking the same thing, because he eventually goes quiet as well.

We are taken to a room on the third floor with a white marble floor. The only furniture in this room is a bench. This must be one of the holding rooms for holding troublemakers. Every faction has one, but I’ve never been inside one.

The door closes behind us and locks.

Tobias sits down on the bench and frowns. Even Uriah looks unhappy. I don’t know Uriah very well, but he always seems good-natured. I don’t think that either of them know why we are in here. They sit silently on the bench. I start pacing along the back wall of the floor. Perhaps it will help me think.

Edward told us that Erudite didn’t take over Candor. Why would the Dauntless guards in Candor want to arrest us? We haven’t done anything wrong. I did sneak out with Tobias to learn how to shoot a gun, but that would be something that Abnegation would frown upon; Candor wouldn’t care about that.

“Can you please calm down?” Tobias snarls. “You’re making me nervous.”

“This is me calming down.”

“The wound in your lip begs to differ.” I realize that I had been biting on my lower lip so hard that it has drawn blood.

I sit down on the bench between him and Uriah. I hug my knees to my chest with my left arm and sigh. Tobias puts his hand on my shoulder.

“You think your brother’s out there?” Tobias asks Uriah. I didn’t even know that he had a brother. It just shows how selfish I’ve been lately. I haven’t even really stopped to think about the people around me, and what they might be going through. It’s just another example of how little I fit into Abnegation.

“I’m sure that he is, as long as Edward was right about the Dauntless out there being the ones that are against Erudite. Zeke isn’t a traitor.”

Tobias nods.

After a while, the door opens. A few people enter: a couple of Candor holding guns, a Dauntless woman, another Candor, and Jack Kang, the Candor representative.

Jack Kang is thirty-nine years old, which is younger than most of the other faction leaders. He has short black hair, high cheekbones, and slanted eyes. He isn’t charming; the Candor consider charm to be deceptive. I know that he’ll get right to the point, rather than wasting time with pleasantries.

“They told me that you seemed confused about why you were arrested,” Jack says. “To me, that means either you’re falsely accused or good at pretending. The only – ”

“What are we accused of?” I ask, interrupting him.

“ _He_ is accused of crimes against humanity,” Jack says, looking at Uriah. “You two are accused of being his accomplices.”

“What?” Uriah asks, standing in protest. “Crimes against humanity?”

“We saw video footage of the attack. You were running the attack simulation.”

“We took the data,” Tobias comments. “How could you have seen the footage?”

“You took one copy of the data. All the footage of the Dauntless compound recorded during the attack was also sent to other computers throughout the city. We saw him running the simulation. You two then entered the room. You,” Jack says, looking at Tobias, “grabbed him, then you,” Jack looks at me, “pressed some buttons. Then you all took the data and ran off. We believe that you may have taken the data because the simulation was over and you didn’t want us to get our hands on it.”

I can’t believe it. The one time I do something heroic, I get accused of committing a crime? Unbelievable.

“That’s ridiculous,” I say. “The simulation didn’t end. We stopped it. You – ”

Jack holds up his hand, interrupting me. “I am not interested in what you have to say right now. The truth will come out when you are all interrogated under the influence of truth serum.”

“What’s truth serum?” I know that Amity has a serum; I saw Tobias when he was under the influence of it. I know that Dauntless has a serum; I saw Uriah and some other Dauntless when they were under its influence. Does Candor have a serum too?

“It will make you tell the truth,” Jack replies. “It is now noon. The interrogation will be at seven. Don’t bother preparing for it. You can’t withhold information while under the influence of truth serum.”

He turns around and abruptly leaves the room. His armed entourage follows him.

“He seems pleasant,” Uriah comments.

 

**Tobias**

The afternoon seems to drag on. Dauntless guards bring some sandwiches to us about halfway through the afternoon, and escort us to the restrooms, but the rest of the time is uneventful. Even Uriah is quiet. He rests his head against the wall and takes a nap.

The bench eventually gets hard and uncomfortable, so me and Tris lie down on the floor on our backs for a while and look up at the ceiling. I grab her hand.

“What are you afraid of saying?” I ask her.

“Any of it. All of it. I don’t want to relive anything.”

I nod. I don’t want to relive the nightmare either. I was hoping that at some point I could put the events of recent days behind me, but it seems as if the past keeps trying to come back to haunt me.

I keep looking at my watch, but it seems as if every time I check, only a minute has passed from the last time I looked. Eventually, I fall asleep.

I wake up to the door opening. Dauntless guards enter, and we stand to our feet. A few other Dauntless enter, including Marlene, Uriah’s girlfriend.

Marlene pushes her way to the front of the group of people and gives Uriah a hug. “I’m so glad that you’re all right,” she says. “I was worried about you.”

“I was worried about you too,” he replies. “How are the others? Is Zeke okay? How about Lynn and Shauna?”

Marlene frowns. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but – ”

“What happened?” his eyes are wide with worry.

“Zeke is with the Dauntless traitors at Erudite.”

Uriah’s jaw drops. I feel a hard lump form in the pit of my stomach. Zeke, my best friend? A traitor? It’s hard to believe.

“Shauna and Lynn are okay. I’m so sorry.” Marlene puts her hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but Uriah looks more dejected than I think I have ever seen him before.

They escort us to an elevator. We take the elevator all the way to the top floor. Everyone else files out before Tris, Uriah and I do. After we exit the elevator, we are escorted down a couple of hallways, and then through a set of double doors. It would be easy to get lost in this place.

We are in a room with white marble floors. Instead of windows, there are empty spaces in the walls. The room is lit with dim yellow lights.

Around us, I see that we have an audience. Most of Candor are here, as well as a large crowd of Dauntless. My friend Shauna is here, as well as Christina, Will, Lynn, and Marlene, some of this year’s initiates. Some of the people are sitting on bleachers, but most of the people are standing. In the center of the room are two chairs. Another three chairs are sitting along the side of the room.

I reach out and grab Tris’s hand. She squeezes it in return.

We are led into the center of the room. Several of the people whisper among themselves; a few people boo. Jack Kang is in the audience, sitting in the first row of the bleachers.

An older, dark-skinned man greets us, carrying a black box.

“My name is Niles. I will be your questioner. We will start with you,” he says, pointing at Uriah. He looks at me next. “You will be questioned second.” He looks over at Tris. “We will finish by questioning you. While you are waiting, you can go sit over there,” he points to the three empty chairs at the front of the audience.

“Please step forward,” he says, holding out a hand towards Uriah.

Uriah walks toward Niles. Niles opens the black box, which contains three syringes full of bluish liquid. He hands Uriah an antiseptic wipe. “The injection site is in your neck,” Niles says.

“We had plenty of injections during Dauntless initiation,” Uriah says, wiping his neck. “I’m familiar with them.”

I watch as Niles plunges a needle into Uriah’s neck, pushing down on the plunger and sending the serum into his bloodstream. I’m not afraid of needles; I’ve injected myself plenty of times before going through my fear landscape. I am afraid of the dark secrets that I keep inside of me; the ones that I have only ever admitted to Tris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	12. The Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tris, Tobias, and Uriah are interrogated by Niles.

**Tris**

“I will ask you a series of simple questions so that you can grow accustomed to the serum as it takes full effect,” Niles tells Uriah, as he sits down in his chair. “Now. What is your name?”

Uriah is slumped over in the chair. “Uriah Pedrad.”

Tobias squeezes my hand. Maybe he’s nervous that they will ask him to reveal his real name under truth serum.

“What are the names of your parents, Uriah?”

“Hana and Jason Pedrad.”

“You were born Dauntless, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Does your allegiance currently remain with Dauntless?”

“My allegiance is with the Dauntless who have not decided to side with the Erudite,” Uriah answers.

“Speaking of which, I think we should focus on what happened on the day of the attack. What do you remember about being under the simulation?”

“I wasn’t affected by it, at first.”

Niles laughs quietly. “What do you mean, you weren’t affected by it?”

“I’m Divergent. Divergents can resist the simulation serum.”

Around the room, people start muttering among themselves. Even outside of Erudite, being Divergent is often considered to be a dangerous thing. Niles puts up a hand to try to get everyone to quiet down, but people keep on whispering. After about a minute, Niles stands. “If you don’t quiet down, you will be asked to leave!” he yells.

The voices around the room hush after that. Niles sits back down.

“When you say that you are resistant to the simulation serum, what does that mean?” His voice is calm and soothing, which is the exact opposite of what I am feeling. I don’t want to talk about this in front of others.

“When I am injected with simulation serum, I am aware of what is going on. I know that the simulation is not real,” Uriah replies. “The attack simulation was different though. I don’t know how. When I woke up that morning, everyone around me was getting dressed. When I spoke to them, they didn’t answer me. Since I didn’t know what was going on, I decided to play along and do what everybody else was doing. I thought it seemed like the safest thing to do.”

“You said earlier that you weren’t under the simulation at first. Can you explain what you mean by that?”

“They discovered that I wasn’t under the simulation, because I wouldn’t shoot at any of the Abnegation. They took me to Jeanine Matthews. She gave me an updated version of the simulation serum that was designed to work on the Divergent. I was aware during the simulation, but I didn’t see things the way that they actually were.”

“The video footage from the Dauntless headquarters shows you running the simulation. How, exactly, do you explain that?”

“I don’t actually know how to run a simulation. My brother works in the control room, but I don’t know how to do much more than how to operate a computer. When I was under the simulation, I saw things differently than they actually were. Enemies appeared to me like they were friends, and friends appeared to me as enemies. When I got to the simulation room, they had me monitor the situation. I thought that I was trying to fight against those that were killing the Abnegation.”

“What happened when your friends entered the control room?”

“When they first entered the control room, I thought that they were Dauntless soldiers that were trying to stop me from trying to save the Abnegation. I fought against them. I was evidently losing the fight. Tris sat down at the computer, and shortly after that, I woke up from the simulation completely.”

“When you woke up, who did you find in the room with you?”

“Four... and Tris.”

“Did you know them before this happened?”

“I knew Four. He was one of the initiation instructors, and is one of my brother’s best friends. I didn’t know Tris.”

“I have one final question,” Niles says. “Among the Candor, before a person is accepted into our community, they have to completely expose themselves. Given the dire circumstances that we are in, we require the same of you. So, Uriah Pedrad: what are your deepest regrets?”

“My brother,” Uriah replies. “My brother joined the Dauntless traitors. I don’t know why. Maybe I could have stopped him, if I hadn’t been caught. Maybe if I had stayed with him on the day of the attack, I could have talked some sense into him.”

“Thank you for your honesty,” the crowd around the room replies.

 

Tobias squeezes my hand before he approaches Niles to go under the truth serum. He wipes his neck with antiseptic, and Niles injects him with a needle. Tobias sits down almost immediately, slumping down in the chair like Uriah did.

“Like we did with Uriah, we will begin with some basic questions, before we move on to the more substantial questions about the event in question. Let’s start with your name.”

“Four.”

Evidently, truth serum must allow you to choose which version of the truth that you plan on answering with.

“That is a nickname,” Niles replies. “What is your real name?”

“Tobias.”

“What are your parent’s names, Tobias?”

Tobias frowns. It appears like he is trying to fight the simulation. “Why is that relevant?” he asks.

People around the room start muttering to themselves.

“Maybe it wasn’t relevant before, Tobias,” Niles answers, “but it is relevant now that you’ve resisted answering the question. Tell me the names of your parents, please.”

“Evelyn and Marcus Eaton.” Tobias’s face is filled with pain. Part of me hurts for him.

People don’t usually identify each other by their last names. Since Marcus is Abnegation’s leader, and Jeanine’s allegations of Tobias’s abuse are well-known, Tobias revealing his parent’s names has now announced to everybody else who he is.

“You were a faction transfer, correct?”

“Yes.”

“You transferred from Abnegation to Dauntless?”

“Yes,” Tobias spits. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“One of the purposes of this interrogation is to determine your loyalties,” Niles says, “so I must ask: why did you transfer?”

I bite my lip. These are such cruel questions to ask him.

Tobias is silent; he glares at Niles. His breathing starts to become heavy.

“I’ll ask again. It is important that we understand the extent of your loyalty to your chosen faction. So why did you transfer to Dauntless, Tobias?”

“To protect myself,” Tobias snaps. “I transferred to protect myself.”

“Protect yourself from what?”

“From my father.”

The room falls silent.

“Thank you for your honesty,” Niles says.

All around the room, everyone else responds with “Thank you for your honesty” as well.

After the room quiets down, Niles continues. “Is your allegiance with your current faction, Tobias?”

“My allegiance lies with anyone who does not support the attack on Abnegation.”

“So what do you remember from the day of the attack?” Niles asks.

Tobias pauses. Is he going to reveal that he chose to go factionless? “When I woke up that morning, I was not under the control of the simulation. I decided to go find Tris, to make sure that she was safe.”

“Are you divergent as well?”

“Yes.”

The crowd once again starts whispering among themselves. Niles holds up his hand to quiet the audience. This time, they quiet down soon afterwards.

“Were you ever under the control of a simulation that day?”

“No. While I was injected the afternoon before along with the rest of Dauntless, I didn’t receive the divergent-resistant serum that Uriah did.”

“What happened when you entered the room where Uriah was monitoring the simulation?”

“When we entered the room, Uriah was under the influence of the simulation. He tried to attack us. He succeeded in shooting Tris. I held him back while I told Tris how to end the simulation.”

“Did you know Tris and Uriah prior to that day?”

“Yes.”

“Where did you know them from?”

“Uriah was my best friend’s brother and one of this year’s initiates. Tris is – my girlfriend.”

People around the room started whispering among themselves. Niles holds up a hand to silence them.

“Tobias, you have been a part of Dauntless for two years. How is it that your girlfriend is in Abnegation?”

“We met when Tris was visiting Dauntless to pick up donations for the factionless. I had been visiting Abnegation at night to see her.”

The crowd again started whispering. I hang my head down. While true, this revelation shows that I’m not the good Abnegation girl that everyone expects me to be. While Abnegation is forgiving, and perhaps factions won’t matter soon anyway, this isn’t something I wanted everybody to know about.

“One more question,” Niles says. “What do you regret the most?”

“I regret...” Tobias sighs. “I regret my choice.”

“What choice?”

“Dauntless. I was born for Abnegation. I was going to become factionless. The only reason why I was staying in Dauntless was to protect Uriah. Choosing Dauntless in order to escape my father was an act of cowardice. I regret that cowardice. I don’t feel worthy of my faction. I will always regret it.”

The crowd is silent. After a few moments, someone whispers “Thank you for your honesty.” Everyone else in the room repeats it.

 

**Tobias**

The fog lifts from my brain as the truth simulation wears off. Unlike the non-divergent when taking truth serum, I remember everything that I said. I remember revealing the truth about my father. Revealing the truth about Tris. I feel irritated about what they made me go through.

I sit down next to Uriah. At least he can relate to what Tris is now going through.

Tris is being injected with the serum now. Niles helps guide her into her chair. While I remember Uriah being slumped over in his chair during his interrogation, Tris is almost sitting normally.

“What is your name?” Niles begins. At least Tris has no secrets here.

“Beatrice Prior.”

“But you go by Tris?”

“I do now.”

“What are the names of your parents, Tris?”

“Andrew and Natalie Prior.”

“You were born in Abnegation, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And you chose to remain in Abnegation.”

“Yes.”

“Your friends both said that they were Divergent. Are you Divergent as well?”

“Yes.”

People around the room start to whisper. Uriah elbows me. “Did you know?” he whispers.

I shake my head. “It never came up, but I’m not surprised,” I whisper to him. “She’s pretty brave for Abnegation.”

“How did you know Tobias – Four – prior to the attack?”

“We had met each other several times before. We are seeing each other.”

“Tell me what happened on the day of the attack.”

“The first thing that I remember that day, Caleb, my brother, was banging on my door. He told us that Abnegation was going to be under attack. We went to a safe house, getting some of our friends to come with us along the way. That’s where I met back up with Four.”

“How did he know to find you there?”

Tris paused for a moment. “He must have figured that it would be the most logical place. We met there before.”

That was a lie. How did Tris manage to lie while under truth serum? It was a smart lie – I’m not sure that Candor would be happy knowing that I knew about the attack ahead of time, even if I did try to warn my father about it. Still, I’m surprised that Tris managed to lie. I didn’t think that was even possible.

“How did you get to the simulation room?”

“We took a train. I had never been on one before, but I had watched Dauntless do it before a lot, when I was in school.”

“When you got to the simulation room, what happened?”

“Uriah was there already. Four stopped him, but not before I was shot. He told me how to end the simulation. Uriah woke up after that.”

“Did you know Uriah before that?”

Tris shakes her head. “No.”

“Were you ever under the simulation?”

“No. I was never injected.”

“Beatrice Prior,” Niles says. “What is your deepest regret?”

“Joining Abnegation,” Tris says.

“Why do you regret joining Abnegation?”

“I should have joined Dauntless,” Tris says. “I would have. I’m too selfish for Abnegation. When I saw my brother Caleb join Erudite... I didn’t think that I could leave my parents alone like that.”

Whispers once again fill the room. After a few moments, Niles raises a hand to quiet them down.

“Thank you for your honesty,” he says. The crowd around the room once again repeats his words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the nice comments. Since this book is almost half-published, I better start working on book 3 soon :-). I do have some outlining done, but most of it is still locked up in my head.
> 
> Hope you liked this chapter!


	13. With Dauntless Now

**Tris**

I feel dizzy as the serum starts to wear off. I watch as people start to file out of the room. I rest my elbows on my legs and bury my head in my hands, trying to appear small. I feel out of place. Abnegation might be forgiving, but do I really belong there anymore, after all that has been admitted here today?

I feel a hand on my shoulder. Tobias. “It’s okay,” he tells me.

I turn around and look up at him. He’s probably the only person around that can understand what I’m going through at the moment – his secrets were revealed today as well.

I close my eyes and sigh.

“It’s getting late,” he tells me. “Let’s go find a place to sleep.”

I stand up, still a little unsteady from the truth serum. As I wobble, Tobias grabs my elbow to steady me. We walk to the elevators, go to the fifth floor, and then enter a room full of bunks. Tobias finds two cots at the end of the room.

I sit down, noticing that everybody around me is wearing black. “I don’t belong here,” I say quietly.

“Nonsense,” Tobias says. “You’re with me.”

Uriah bounds down the hallway with a big grin. “Tris!” he shouts. “I want you to meet some people. He grabs my hand and pulls me across the room. Tobias comes with me.

He takes me to a group of people gathered at a cot in the middle of the room. “I want you to meet some of my friends,” he says. “Tris, this is Christina, Will, Marlene, and Lynn. Everyone, this is Tris.”

I give everyone a small wave. “Nice to meet you,” I say.

“So, are you as scary as your boyfriend?” Christina, a brown-skinned girl with short dark hair, says. Tobias frowns.

“He’s not scary,” I reply.                               

“He was during initiation. Once, he held a gun up to an initiate’s head.”

“Christina, you’re letting your Candor show,” Will, the blonde-haired boy sitting next to her, says, putting his arm around her shoulders. Will looks at me. “Sorry, sometimes she says a little more than she should be saying.

“It was Peter,” Tobias shrugs.

“That explains everything,” I roll my eyes.

“So you know Peter?” Christina asks.

“Let’s just say, he attacked me while I was sleeping back in Amity. My ‘scary boyfriend’” got rid of him for me.

Lynn, whose hair is almost completely shaved, sticks out her hand to shake mine. “For Abnegation, you seem pretty bad-ass,” she says to me.

“Thanks,” I say, shaking her hand. After growing up in Abnegation, shaking hands with people still seems uncomfortable.

“If you’re friends with Uriah, you must be okay,” Marlene says.

I smile. Perhaps I won’t be as alone as I thought I was going to be.

 

Tobias wakes up earlier than I do the next morning. We walk to breakfast together, and join Uriah and my new friends in the cafeteria. Christina gives me a disapproving look as I sit down next to her.

“Isn’t that what you wore yesterday?” she asks.

I look down at my oversized black shirt. “Yes. This is all I have.”

“That just won’t do,” she says. “We need to find you some more clothes.”

“Christina loves clothes,” Marlene says.

I shrug. “I’ve never really thought much about them. We get new clothes every six months in Abnegation. They say that clothing is just there to cover you and protect you from the elements.”

“Well, you’re with Dauntless now,” Christina says. “At least until all this uproar with the factions settles down. We’ll have to get you some proper clothes. Maybe even some makeup.”

Makeup also was an Abnegation no-no; but she’s right, I might be a member of Abnegation, but my faction is strewn all about the city. I might as well play Dauntless for a while.

I have a sausage and egg muffin sandwich and a cup of fruit for breakfast. “Wow, this is really good,” I comment, taking a bite of the sandwich.

“You’ve never had a sausage and egg sandwich before?” Christina asks.

“No, most of this food is new to me,” I comment. “I guess that they figure that the spices in the sausage are too indulgent.”

Christina shakes her head. “I seriously don’t understand your faction.”

I shrug.

Uriah finishes the food on his plate. “I’m going to get some more food,” he comments. “The food just isn’t this good with the factionless.”

“I’ll come too,” Marlene says.

After they walk away, Lynn makes a face. “They’ve been spending every waking moment together ever since the interrogation.”

“That was only last night,” I comment. “His brother’s a traitor. I could imagine that he’ll need as many friends as he can get right about now.”

“Yeah. That was a disappointment. One minute he was with us, the next minute...” her voice trails off as if in thought. “We train to be brave in Dauntless, but you never really know how someone is going to react until they actually face a situation.”

 

After lunch, Christina grabs my arm and takes me over to her bunk. “Hey Marlene!” she says. “We need to get some clothes for Tris. Could you get some of the smaller girls to give up a couple pieces of clothing to her? She needs shirts, pants, and underwear.”

“Sure,” Marlene says, taking off.

“Now, we need to give you a makeover,” Christina said. “Good thing I have my makeup bag with me.”

She takes out a pen. “I’m going to put this on your eyes,” she says. “Try not to move.” It’s hard not to blink as she draws on my eyelids. When she finishes, she scoots back to examine her work. “One more thing,” she says, taking out another tube. “I’m going to put this on your eyelashes.”

When she finishes, she hands me a mirror. “What do you think?”

I’m still not used to looking at myself in the mirror, but I like what I see. “Nice,” I say.

Marlene comes back with an armload of clothes. “Here you go, Tris,” she says.

“Thank you.”

I grab the clothes and bring them to my cot. I pick out an outfit to wear: a tank top and tight-fitting black jeans. I take them into the bathroom to change.

When I come back, Tobias is sitting on his cot. He smiles at the sight of me. “Wow,” he says.

 

**Tobias**

Tris’s new friends have seemed to be a good influence on her, at least in the looks department. I liked the way that she looked before, but after she emerges from the bathroom in her new outfit, she looks stunning. Her eyes stand out, and her shape stands out in the form-fitting tank top that she’s wearing.

“Wow,” I can’t help but saying. “You look... different.”

“Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?” she asks, sitting down next to me.

“It’s a good thing,” I say, putting my arm around her waist. “Not that you didn’t look good before.”

She rolls her eyes. “You know I’m not pretty,” she says.

If only she could understand how beautiful I think that she is. “Well, I like how you look.” I kiss her on the forehead.

We look at each other for a moment. Without thinking, I kiss her on the lips.

I’ve never kissed anybody this way before. I’m not sure if I’m doing it right, but I like it. I love the way her soft lips feel against mine. When I finish kissing her, I look at her. She smiles. I must be doing something right. I kiss her again, more certain this time.

“Break it up, you two,” Uriah says. I look up to see him grinning. “We’re going to the Hancock building tonight. Do you guys want to come?”

“What for?” Tris asks.

“Surveillance. Erudite have been keeping their lights on at night. We figure that we’ll be able to look through their windows. See what they’re doing.”

“I’ll go,” Tris says.

I shake my head. “No thanks,” I reply. “You go ahead though, Tris.”

“Okay,” Uriah says. “We’ll be leaving at 10 tonight.”

“Sounds good,” Tris smiles.

“Oh, speaking of the war,” I say, “I got our weapons back.” I reach under my pillow, where I had been storing her gun, and hand it to Tris.

 

That evening, Lynn comes to collect Tris. “Ready to go?” she asks. Tris nods.

“You can still come with us if you want to,” she says to me.

I shake my head. “No, I’ve got a few things to take care of here,” I lie. “But be careful.” I don’t really have anything to do, but I can think of a hundred other things that I’d rather be doing than going up to the top of a 100 story building. I hate heights.

“Aren’t I always?” Tris says, looking innocently at me. I shake my head. “Don’t do anything stupid,” I reiterate. I lean forward and kiss her.

I watch her walk away and lean back on my bunk.

A few minutes later, a young Erudite woman bursts into the room. I’ve seen her somewhere before, but I just can’t place her. “We need to get up to the top floor. Now!” she says. “Dauntless traitors.”

_Tris_ , I think to myself. She just left with Uriah and some other Dauntless. There’s nothing that I can do for her at the moment though. I just have to hope that she can handle herself.

“Take the stairs!” the Erudite woman barks. Looking at her more closely, I remember where I’ve seen her before: Visiting Day. I can’t remember what her name is, but this is Will’s sister.

The group of us that are left that decided not to go to the Hancock building to conduct surveillance, including Will and Christina, rush to the stairwell and start climbing upwards.

As we walk up the stairs, Will greets his sister. “What’s going on, Cara?”

“The Dauntless that have allied with Erudite will be storming this building in the next couple of minutes,” she says. “They want to add the Candor to their little army. They’re going to start at the bottom and work their way up.”

Below me, I hear a loud _Boom!_ My stomach ties itself in a knot as I wonder what might be going on with Tris at the moment. No time to think about that though.

We climb up to the eighteenth floor. Several of the people around me are out of breath by the time we get to the top, but I’ve been training a lot lately, so the climb wasn’t a lot of trouble for me.

“How many of them are there?” I ask, after we reach the top.

“There’s about fifty of them,” Cara replies. “They don’t really expect any resistance, and they’re not really here to kill anybody. I don’t even know if most of them actually have real bullets in their guns.”

“We can take them, then,” I say.

“They’re going to take everybody to the lobby by the elevators,” Cara says. “The Divergent, at least. The rest of them will be affected by the simulation serum, and that’s all they want with them.”

“Okay, then this is what we’re going to need to do. We’re going to need to overtake them in the elevators. Does everybody have weapons on them?”

Most of the people in the group nod. Of course they have weapons with them: they’re Dauntless.

“We’ll overpower them by the elevators in the lobby then. Any objections?”

“Sounds good to me,” says Will.

“There are four stairwells,” I observe. “We can split up into four groups, one for each stairwell. Head down the fire escape.”

As we divide up into groups, I hear a gunshot. I frown, thinking of Tris. Christina puts a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be okay,” she tells me. “It sounds like she’s already made it through a lot.”

I nod. I hope that she’s right.

Our groups split up. We quietly climb down the fire escape. As I enter through the stairwell on the first floor, I hear Eric’s muffled voice, and then a gunshot, followed by a lot of commotion. When I see what is going on, my heart beats more rapidly than I think it ever has before.

Tris is standing next to Eric, who is slumped over next to her. A pool of blood is forming underneath them. Uriah is punching one of the Dauntless traitors, who are wearing blue armbands.

I rush at Tris and push her to the wall, shielding her with my body. “Tell me if anyone’s behind me!” I shout.

I turn and start shooting at the Dauntless traitors, who are now fleeing. My gun runs out of bullets, but it looks like all of the traitors have left.

I look at Tris. She is holding a gun, her hand is covered with blood, and she is breathing heavily. I can see tears forming in her eyes. Eric is moaning on the floor. She must have shot him.

“Tris,” I say. “You can put your gun down now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like this chapter. Comments are welcome!


	14. Long-Lasting Transmitters

**Tobias**

Tris lowers her gun, and her face changes, as if she is snapping back to reality. She closes her eyes and sighs. “Four,” she says.

“What happened?” I ask, looking down at Eric, who is bleeding on the floor beneath us.

“This guy,” she says angrily, following my gaze to Eric. “He shot a boy. He said that Jeanine wanted to take two Divergents back to Erudite, but he was going to kill the rest of us. He said that his brain wasn’t fully developed, so he shot him. He was going to shoot me next. He said that I looked young as well, and – I shot him in the stomach.”

A few Candor come in, carrying a stretcher. They see Eric, still writhing on the ground. “We need to get him medical treatment,” a young Candor woman says.

“He killed that boy,” Tris says, pointing to a Candor boy on the ground.

“Then we will have to put him on trial,” she replies. “In the meantime, we have to treat our prisoners honorably.”

Tris rolls her eyes. The Candor put Eric on the stretcher and take him away.

“That was Eric, one of the leaders of Dauntless,” I say. “I’m not surprised that he defected to the Erudite. That was his original faction. Not that that makes a person a traitor, but he was also pretty cruel as well. He would have been one of your instructors if you had chosen Dauntless at your choosing ceremony.”

“From the little I know of him, he sounds like a great guy,” Tris says sarcastically. “He and Peter could be the best of friends.”

We make our way back to the dorm, and Tris excuses herself to go to the bathroom. I lay back on my cot. A few minutes later, Tris comes back holding a giant blue disk with a needle at the end of it.

“They shot these things into us,” she says. “A lot of the Candor seem to be pretty panicked about what happened. I’m going to help them get these things out.”

“Okay. I’ll help you.”

We head down to the Candor dorms together. When I remove a disc from their shoulders, they wince in pain. “Did you pull that thing out yourself?” I ask incredulously, after watching their reactions.

“Yes,” she says. “It hurt a lot.”

I can imagine. I have to admire her for being able to take the pain.

Tris says calming words to them as she pulls out the disks, trying to comfort them. Even though she says that sometimes she feels like she doesn’t belong in Abnegation, she still has a selfless streak to her.

Uriah comes up to me. “We need your help, Four. Tris can help get these disks out of people’s necks. We could use your help hauling some of the wounded Erudite upstairs.”

“Okay,” I say.

“I’ll see you later, Four,” Tris says to me.

 

We’re up all night working. By the time I’ve moved all of the Erudite upstairs to a makeshift infirmary up on the fourth floor, it is already time for breakfast. As we enter the cafeteria, we see Natalie Prior and Caleb. Natalie runs up to Tris and gives her a hug.

“I’m so glad to see you,” Natalie says.

“Are you all right?” Caleb asks, taking his turn to give her a hug. “Your jaw...”

“It’s nothing,” Tris says. “Just swollen.” Tris looks up and down at her family members and smiles. “When did you two get here?”

“About ten minutes ago.” Caleb replies. “We came with Marcus.”

At the sound of my father’s name, I stiffen. I’m not sure what to think, knowing that he survived the attack on Amity. Part of me is relieved that he’s okay. He is my dad, after all, terrible as he is. The other part of me wishes that I was rid of him forever.

“As our only legal political leader, he felt it was his duty to be here – ” Caleb continues. “We didn’t hear about the attack until an hour ago. One of the factionless saw the Dauntless storming into the building, and news takes a while to travel among the factionless.”

“So Marcus is alive,” I say flatly.

“Yeah,” Caleb answers. “He and Peter escaped, and walked back to the city.”

I see Tris shudder at hearing that Peter survived. I don’t blame her for feeling that way. “Where is he?” I ask.

“He went back to Erudite,” Natalie says.

“It figures,” Tris snorts.

“Are you hungry? Do you want me to get you something?” Caleb asks.

“Yes, please,” Tris says. “We’ve been up all night getting these blue disks out of everybody.”

“All right,” Caleb says, leaving to stand in the long cafeteria line. Natalie, Tris and I walk to a table, sitting next to Uriah, Christina, and Will. Tris sits down next to Christina; I sit down next to her.

“You look terrible,” Christina says, looking at Tris.

“Thanks,” Tris says, rolling her eyes. “Today’s incredible beauty comes from getting hit in the face and then staying up all night.”

“You should get some rest.”

“That’s the plan, after breakfast.” She folds her arms on the table and rests her head on her arms. I wrap my arm around her waist.

“Oh look, it’s _Tobias Eaton_!” someone from Dauntless says, passing me.

“I saw your daddy here earlier, Eaton!” another person taunts me. “Are you gonna go hide?”

I frown. I notice that Natalie and Tris are looking at me with concern.

“Yeah, are you gonna hide, coward?” People around me laugh.

This just won’t do. I can’t let people in Dauntless disrespect me like this – not if I want to try to become influential in the faction. I still don’t know what to do about my mother, but nothing good can come from having people mocking me like this.

“Let’s go,” Tris says, grabbing my arm. “I need to talk to you about something.”

 

We take the elevator up to the eighteenth floor, where the interrogation took place. “What did you want to talk about?” I ask.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“Yeah,” I say, sighing. “Is this what you wanted to ask me about?”

“No. I was going to ask you about simulations. But I was also wondering... didn’t your mother say that she thought that Jeanine would go after the factionless next?”

“Well, think about it,” I say. “Think it through, like an Erudite.”

She gives me an odd look.

“What?” I laugh. “If you can’t, the rest of us have no hope.”

“Fine,” she says. She starts pacing back and forth along the length of the room. “Um... it had to be because Dauntless and Candor were the most logical targets. Because... the factionless are in multiple places, whereas we’re all in the same place.”

“Right,” I nod. “Also, when Jeanine attacked Abnegation, she got all the Abnegation data. Your mother was trying to get the information back. My mother told me that the Abnegation had documented the factionless Divergent populations, which means that after the attack, Jeanine must have found out that the proportion of Divergent among the factionless is higher than among the Candor. That makes them an illogical target.”

“All right.” Tris’s face is lighting up, as if receiving a revelation. “Tell me about the serum. It has a few parts, right?”

“Two,” I say, nodding. “The transmitter and the liquid that induces the simulation. The transmitter communicates information to the brain from the computer, and vice versa, and the liquid alters the brain to put it in a simulation state.”

“Hmmm...” she says. “The transmitter only works for one simulation, right? What happens to it after that?”

“It dissolves,” I say. “As far as I know, the Erudite haven’t been able to develop a transmitter that lasts for more than one simulation, although the attack simulation lasted far longer than any simulation I’ve seen before.”

I can tell from the look on her face that Tris is trying to figure out something.

“What’s this about, Tris?”

“You’ve seen the needles that we were all shot with, right?”

I nod. The wounds left behind are nasty, gaping holes with blue dye inside.

“They weren’t trying to kill us when we were attacked,” she states.

I take the needle from her and examine it. “This is probably hollow. It must have contained whatever that blue stuff in your arm is. What happened after you were shot?”

“They tossed these gas-spewing cylinders into the room, and everyone went unconscious. That is, everyone but Uriah and me and the other Divergent.”

I nod.

“Anyway, after we figured out that everyone was asleep, Uriah ran upstairs to warn the people who were up there. I didn’t know what to do, so I pretended that I was unconscious... until somebody stepped on my hand, and I guess I made a face, which gave me away. They took me to the elevators, where Eric was keeping all of the Divergent. He was trying to figure out which of us he was going to take back with him. He said that he was allowed to take two. I don’t know why he was going to take any.”

“Odd,” I say.

“Any ideas?”

I scratch my head. “My guess is that the needle injected you with a transmitter, and the gas was an aerosol version of the liquid that alters the brain. But why...” I frown. “Oh. She put everyone to sleep to find out who the Divergent were.”

“You think that’s the only reason for shooting us with transmitters?”

I shake my head. I look at her. Her blue eyes are so beautiful, but it looks as if they are filled with fear. I wish that I could tell her that everything was going to be okay, but I don’t know if that’s true.

“I think you’ve already figured it out,” I say, hesitantly.

“They’ve developed a long-lasting transmitter,” Tris says.

I nod.

“So now we’re wired for multiple simulations?” she asks. “As many as Jeanine wants, maybe.”

I nod again.

“This is really bad, Tobias,” she says shakily.

 

**Tris**

“So this is your brother?” Lynn asks at lunchtime. I had managed to get in a short nap after talking to Tobias that morning and grabbing a muffin that Caleb had picked up for me at breakfast. “I guess we know who got the good genes.”

Caleb makes a face, and I can’t help but laugh. My mother shakes her head at us.

“When do you have to get back?” I ask, poking him in the side with my elbow.

I’m nervous having my family here. Caleb wasn’t at the interrogation, so I still am technically keeping my secret about how I got to know Tobias from him, but I still am uncomfortable with seeing how Dauntless has seemingly adopted me as one of their own. I’m not as concerned with my mother. Growing up, she was the very definition of Abnegation, but ever since the war started, I’ve been seeing her in a different light. After seeing my Abnegation mother handling a gun and encouraging my relationship with Tobias, she almost seems like a completely different person.

“Soon,” Caleb says. “I don’t want anyone to worry.”

“I didn’t realize Susan had changed her name to ‘Anyone,’” I tease.

“Ha, ha,” he says, making a face at me.

I’m not used to teasing my brother. Teasing among siblings was discouraged in Abnegation, as it might make someone feel uncomfortable.

“Is Susan another Erudite defector?” Lynn asks, taking a bite of green beans. Uriah and Tobias are still waiting for their lunches. Christina, Will, and Marlene have already sat down with us.

“No, she was our neighbor when we were kids,” I reply. “She’s Abnegation.”

“I guess factions don’t seem to matter to anyone in Abnegation anymore,” Christina comments.

I shrug. “There’s not much of Abnegation left.”

My mother smiles. When we were in Amity, she told me that factions wouldn’t mean much in the near future, so I’m not very concerned. She knows something that she’s not telling me just yet.

I notice Cara walking in the room. She goes to sit next to some other Erudite refugees. Most of them are wearing Candor black and white, but they’re still wearing glasses. Will sees his sister across the room as well, and waves to her. She smiles back at him.

“I can’t go back to Erudite any more than they can,” Caleb says, nodding to the Erudite table. “Abnegation is practically destroyed, and I don’t really have a faction either. I might as well be with Susan.”

“You could go sit with them,” I say.

“I don’t know them,” Caleb says, shrugging. “I was only there for a month, remember?”

Uriah approaches the table, setting his tray down next to Marlene. “I overheard someone talking about Eric’s interrogation in the lunch line. Apparently he knew nothing about Jeanine’s plan.”

“What?” Lynn asks, incredulously. “How is that even possible?”

Uriah shrugs, sitting down.

“I’m not surprised,” Caleb comments.

Everyone looks at him.

“What?” he asks. “It would be stupid to confide your entire plan to one person. It’s infinitely smarter to give little pieces of it to each person working with you. That way, if someone betrays you, the loss isn’t too great.”

“Makes sense,” I say. I scoot over to make room for Tobias, who sits down next to me.

“I heard the Candor made ice cream,” says Marlene, looking back at the lunch line “You know, as a kind of ‘it sucks we got attacked, but at least there are desserts’ thing.”

“I feel better already,” Lynn says emotionlessly.

“It probably won’t be as good as Dauntless cake,” Marlene sighs.

“Dauntless has good cake,” Will says.

“We had fizzy drinks,” Caleb says.

“We didn’t have desserts in Abnegation,” I comment, stabbing at some green beans. “I’ve never had cake, ice cream, or fizzy drinks.”

“We’ll have to change that today,” Christina says. “We can start with the ice cream, but we definitely will have to get some Dauntless cake for you to try.”

“Dauntless had a ledge overlooking an underground river,” Marlene says wistfully. “And a room where we faced all our nightmares at once.”

“We didn’t have those,” Caleb says, “and to be honest, I’m kind of okay with that.”

“Si-ssy” Marlene says.

“So you had to face all of your nightmares?” Caleb asked, his eyes lighting up the way they do when he’s about to learn something. “How does that work? I mean, are the nightmares produced by the computer, or by your brain?”

“Here we go,” Lynn says, rolling her eyes.

Tobias starts to explain how the simulation serum works, stimulating your brain to produce your nightmares. While I find the concept of facing your nightmares somewhat interesting, I’m still exhausted, even after taking a nap after breakfast. I set my head on the table and fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long to get this next chapter out. Even though the story is done, I always look over a chapter at least twice on publishing days: once to see if there's anything I want to add or change structurally, and a second time as a final quality control check. I'll be doing the same thing with book 3, because I like how book 2 is turning out much better than book 1. Books 3 and 4 still only exist in partial outline form (I roughly know how the final book is going to end now), but at the very latest, I should be able to get book 3 done this summer and book 4 written by NaNoWriMo this year (if they're done before that I have another idea for a book that will be a little different).
> 
> Thanks for reading! I love to read comments!


	15. The Needs of the Many

**Tris**

“Quiet down everyone!” Jack Kang says, lifting his hands. Everyone in the crowd goes silent.

I arrived late to the meeting, but my mother saved me a seat next to her and Caleb, so I sit next to them. I see the flash created by lightning through the holes in one of the walls. Meeting in a room with holes in the wall instead of windows doesn’t seem like such a good idea during a lightning storm, but this is the only room large enough to hold everyone.

“I know many of you are confused and shaken by what happened yesterday,” Jack says. “I have heard many reports from a variety of perspectives, and have gotten a sense for what is straightforward and what requires more investigation.”

I took a nap before this meeting, just waking up about ten minutes before it started. Even though I didn’t get to sleep for long, I am feeling better than I did before.

“What seems to require more investigation is the Divergent,” Jack says. “If you are one of the Divergent, please step forward so that we can hear from you.”

I don’t like the sound of this. Ever since I first heard of the Divergent, and that I was one, I was told that it was something that I needed to hide. Of course, I was outed as Divergent during my interrogation, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other Divergent among us that are still in hiding.

Tobias is the first one to step forward. He squeezes through the crowd and stands proudly in front of Jack Kang.

My mother stands up at the same time as I do. “You?” I ask her quietly, and she nods. I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised, the way that she handles a weapon and jumps on trains. She doesn’t look surprised to see that I am divergent as well. Perhaps, knowing what to look for, she was able to see my divergent traits long before I even knew that it was a possibility.

Nobody is surprised to see me and Tobias step forward, and not that many people knew my mother – even though she was married to an Abnegation leader, most of her work was with the factionless – everyone is surprised when Marcus steps forward.

“You, Marcus?” Jack says as Marcus walks to the middle of the room.

“Yes,” Marcus says. “I understand that you are concerned – that you all are concerned. You had never heard of the Divergent a week ago, and now all that you know is that they are immune to something to which you are susceptible, and that is a frightening thing. But I can assure you that there is nothing to be afraid of, as far as we are concerned.”

His words and actions feel almost charming. It’s no wonder that so many people like and respect him, despite the fact that behind closed doors, he is a monster that abused his own son and wife.

“It seems clear to me,” Jack says, “that we were attacked so that the Erudite could find the Divergent. Do you know why that is?”

“No, I do not,” Marcus says. “Perhaps their intention was merely to identify us. It seems like useful information to have, if they intend to use their simulations again.”

“That’s not what they wanted,” I say, before I have the chance to think about whether I should say them or not. “They wanted to kill us. But that’s not the only thing that they were doing during the attack. They were shooting everyone with simulation transmitters.”

Jack frowns, furrowing his brow. “That sounds very much like a conspiracy theory. Why would the Erudite want to kill you? And if they wanted to control us with simulation transmitters, don’t you think that they would have begun to control us already? Simulations are not permanent implants.”

“We know how simulations have worked in the past,” Tobias says. “But we also know that they are developing better simulations. Uriah was injected with an experimental serum that was developed to work more strongly on the Divergent.”

“It’s highly unlikely that they would have developed a simulation and not use it yet,” Jack says. “Their invasion yesterday, for the most part, was peaceful. The best course of action, I believe, would be to try to negotiate a peace treaty with the Erudite and their allied Dauntless. If you are right, Tris, about them wanting to kill the Divergent, well, I don’t think that changes much. While I do care for your safety, I’m not going to risk attacking the Erudite because they might want to kill a tiny fraction of our population.”

_So the needs of the collective are more important than the needs of the individual?_ I think to myself. _What kind of a society abandons people because they’re different?_

“You don’t make the decisions for us, Kang,” Tobias says.

“Yeah! You are not the leader of our faction!” someone on the other side of the room from Dauntless yells. All around the room, people shout their frustration with this decision.

After the crowd quiets down, Jack says “That is true. If you want to, you can feel free to storm the Erudite compound by yourselves. But you will do so without our support, and may I remind you, you are greatly outnumbered and unprepared.”

Jack does have a point. Erudite has half of Dauntless with them, as well as all of the members of their faction. It would be foolish for Dauntless to attack with their numbers, without more support.

“I thought so,” Jack says, giving the crowd a smug look. “Very well. I will contact Jeanine Matthews, and see if we can negotiate a peace. Any objections?”

My mind is objecting, but I don’t say anything. There has to be another way, rather than to let Erudite run all over us. _Perhaps_ , _I think, we don’t need Candor. The factionless might be able to help_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was so short, I decided to publish a second one today.


	16. "Peace" With Those That Want You Dead

**Tobias**

That afternoon I meet with some of the members of Dauntless. We are trying to figure out the best course of action to take.

“Why does Kang think that he can tell us what to do, anyway?” Harrison, one of the older members of Dauntless, says. He is pacing back and forth through the room. “We can decide things for ourselves.”

“We are staying in their building,” Hana, Uriah’s mom, notes. “Maybe it’s time to return to Dauntless. That way they don’t have a right to tell us what to do.”

“Dauntless is covered in security cameras,” I say, frowning. “Erudite would be able to easily spy on us if we’re there.”

“We need to do something,” Uriah says. “I don’t know what Jack’s terms are going to be with the Erudite, but it doesn’t sound good. I don’t like it.” As a fellow Divergent, Uriah has as much reason to be concerned as I do.

We hear a commotion in the room outside. We rush out to see what the noise is all about. Coming in through the front door is Zeke, holding up one of the Dauntless tattoo artists, Tori, who looks like she is almost too weak to stand.

“She needs medical attention!” Zeke shouts. “Right now.”

“Why should we give a traitor medical attention?” Harrison asks.

Tori moans, and Tris rushes in to help her. She grabs Tori’s hand and helps lower her to the ground.

“Better step back, girl,” Harrison says to her, pointing a gun at Tori.

“No,” Tris says. “Put your gun down.”

“Told you the Divergent were crazy,” an older Dauntless man, who I don’t know, mutters to a woman next to him.

“I don’t care if you bring her upstairs and tie her to a bed to keep her from going on a shooting spree!” Zeke snarls, “Don’t let her bleed to death in the lobby of Candor headquarters!”

Will and another Dauntless man step forward and pick Tori up. “Where does she need to go?” Will asks.

“Find Helena,” Zeke says. “Dauntless nurse.”

Will and the other Dauntless man carry her to the elevators.

“What’s going on, Zeke?” I ask.

Zeke looks at me with a puzzled expression. I don’t blame him; the last time I saw him, I told him that I was joining the factionless; yet here I am, dressed in black and acting like I never left.

“The traitor Dauntless found out that we were collecting information from them,” he says. “Tori tried to get away, but they shot her as she was running. I helped her get here.” Zeke grins. “Nice to see you again, Four.”

“Well, that’s a nice story,” Harrison says. “Want to tell it again under truth serum?”

“All right,” Zeke shrugs, holding out his hands as if he is going to be handcuffed. “Haul me away, if you’re so desperate to.”

Uriah emerges from the elevators. When he sees his brother, a big grin covers his face. They give each other a huge embrace. “I’m so glad you’re not a traitor,” Uriah says.

“I’m glad that you’re okay, Zeke,” I say. “I want you to meet my girlfriend Tris,” I say, putting my hand on her shoulder.

“It’s about time you found a girl,” Zeke says to me, grinning. “Nice to meet you, Tris.”

He holds out his hand, and Tris shakes it uncomfortably. A distaste for handshakes is a trait that I think that most Abnegation born have. “Nice to meet you,” she says.

 

Zeke was able to easily clear his and Tori’s name after a short interrogation under truth serum. Unlike the interrogation that Uriah, Tris and I had to go through, the entire building wasn’t invited to see him being questioned.

I was invited, along with a few of the other Dauntless members, to go to a meeting with Jack Kang regarding the meeting that they will be having with Erudite tomorrow. When we’re done, I’m supposed to let the rest of Dauntless know what’s going on.

“I have arranged a meeting with one of Erudite’s representatives for tomorrow morning,” Jack says. “She says that she wants to meet at seven in the morning tomorrow.”

“She’s not coming?” I ask.

“I’m sure that she has plenty of other things to do,” Jack says. I frown. I do not like this arrangement.

“In the interest in promoting harmony between our factions,” Jack continues, “I would like to have a representative from Dauntless come with me.”

“I’ll go,” Bud, who normally works in the Dauntless tattoo parlor with Tori, volunteers. “I can report back to Dauntless what goes on at the meeting.”

“I’ll go too” Harrison volunteers.

“Very well,” Jack says. “Anybody have any objections?”

I have a bad feeling about this meeting, but I don’t say anything. It’s not worth the fight.

“Well, then, since nobody objects,” Jack says, looking around the room, “then I will meet with you two first thing tomorrow, and we will meet up with the Erudite at seven.”

I leave to meet the rest of Dauntless, who should already be together at the Gathering Place.

“Kang is going to meet with a representative of Jeanine Matthews at seven in the morning,” I say, irritated, after I join the group.

“A representative?” Zeke says. “She’s not going herself?”

I shake my head.

“Guess she doesn’t want to stand out in the open where a bunch of angry people with guns can take aim,” Uriah smirks. “I’d like to see her try. No, really, I would.”

“Is Kang the Brilliant taking a Dauntless escort, at least?” Lynn asks.

“Yes,” I say. “Some of the older members volunteered. Bud said that he would keep his ears open and report back.”

 

**Tris**

While the Dauntless met at the Gathering Place to figure out their next move regarding Jack Kang, I spend the afternoon chatting with my mother. She is planning on returning with Caleb to the Abnegation group gathered with the factionless.

“Are you sure that you don’t want to come with us?” she asks.

“No, I’m fine here.”

She gives me a knowing smile. “I guess Tobias wouldn’t be going, huh.”

I smile back at her. At least my mother seems supportive of my relationship with Tobias.

As if on cue, he walks into the dormitory. “Tris,” he says, sitting down on my cot next to me. “I have the information about Kang’s peace negotiations.”

“So what’s going on?” I ask.

“He will be meeting with a representative of Jeanine’s tomorrow at seven. Some of the older Dauntless are going to go listen and will report back what’s going on.”

“It’s not going to be good for us,” Tris says. “He didn’t seem at all concerned about the Divergent at the meeting earlier today.”

“Yeah, I know. A few Dauntless are going to the meeting to eavesdrop.”

“We should go too,” I suggest.

Tobias shakes his head. “That would not be a good idea.”

“Why not?” I ask.

“There are already going to be some Dauntless going, and it will probably be pretty dangerous. Not that I don’t think that you can handle danger,” he says, “but you didn’t go through Dauntless training, and there’s really no reason for you to be there.”

I frown.

“He does have a point, Tris,” my mother says. “If you went, it wouldn’t change anything.”

They’re both right, of course. I don’t really have to go, and my going wouldn’t make much of a difference. Still, waiting for the verdict will not be easy. I don’t like to sit around waiting for events to occur.

I sigh. “I guess,” I say. “Waiting for everyone to come back is not going to be easy though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally started writing book 3. :-)
> 
> Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome!


	17. Helpless to Change Things

**Tobias**

Tris and I are eating dinner with our friends: Uriah, Lynn, Christina, Will, Zeke, and Lauren. Tris has a scowl on her face and is picking at her food. Even though she says that she sees the logic in not going to listen in on tomorrow morning’s meeting, I can tell that she’s not happy about it.

“I wonder if we’ll be able to return to the old way after all this is over,” Lauren says. She has been talking to me about initiation next year. I’m skeptical that there will even be an initiation next year.

“Do you even think that there will be factions left after this is all over?” Will asks.

Lynn is piling her mashed potatoes onto a roll.

“Don’t tell me that you’re going to eat a mashed potato sandwich,” Tris comments, looking at Lynn’s creation.

“So what if I am?”

Tris shrugs.

A group of Dauntless, a few years older than I am, passes by us. One of them whispers “Coward” to me as he passes by.

Several others do the same thing. I frown. Inwardly, I am fuming. I spent my whole life trying to cover up the truth, then trying to gain a new start in Dauntless, and here in Candor, it comes back to haunt me. To top it off, if Dauntless thinks of me as a coward, I’m not going to be accepted as a leader in the faction. If I want to make change, I’m going to have to change their perception of me.

“What idiots,” Lauren comments. “And the Candor, for making you spill your life story for everyone to see... they’re idiots too.”

They were idiots, but there’s nothing that can be done about it now. I had been thinking about taking action for the last couple of days now, and I have come up with a plan that hopefully will change their perception of me. The whispers of coward behind my back have been quiet, but relentless. I have to do something about it now.

“This needs to stop,” I say, putting my fork down. I stride over to my father, the cause of most of my life’s pain from childhood; the man who, for years, had made me feel like I was worthless and broken.

I grab my father by the neck and pick him up. Before Marcus can say anything, I punch him in the face, and then shove him into the middle of the room. I press my foot into his throat. My father is trying to fight back, but after years of being Dauntless, I am stronger than him now.

I take my belt out of its loops. A fitting payback for years of abuse.

“This is for your own good,” I say, striking him with the belt several times. Around me, the crowd of Dauntless is laughing.

I wasn’t planning on hitting him very many times, but Tris stops me anyway, grabbing my shoulder.

“Stop!” she says. “Tobias, stop _right now_!”

I was about done anyway.

I take out my mother’s wedding band out of my pocket. Evelyn had given it to me when we were with the factionless. “My mother says hello,” I tell him, throwing the ring at him.

I walk out of the cafeteria. I don’t want to see my father right now.

“What was that?” Tris asks, chasing me as I leave the room.

“It was necessary,” I say.

“Necessary for what?”

“What, you’re feeling sorry for him now?” I ask, scowling. “Do you know how many times he did that to me? How do you think I learned the moves?”

Tris looks pale. Of course she has no idea. She only knows what I’ve told her, and what she’s read in the newspapers. She would have no clue about the extent of what I’ve been through.

“No,” Tris says quietly. “No, I don’t feel sorry for him, not at all.”

“Then what, Tris?” I ask.

“Nothing,” she says.

I get on the elevator and leave. She doesn’t understand this. I don’t think that anything can make her understand.

 

**Tris**

Lynn, Shauna, and a few of the others are leaving this morning to go spy on the meeting with the Erudite. They wake me up as they get ready, and I can’t go back to sleep. Part of me still wants to go along with them, but another part of me realizes that I’m not Dauntless, do not have the training for it, and could do more harm than good by going.

I watch Tobias on the cot next to mine. I can’t understand what’s going on in his mind. His attack on his father was obviously planned, but he didn’t tell me about it. When I tried talking to him about it afterwards, he walked away from our conversation. I don’t know what to think.

His eyes flutter open, and he sees that I’m awake. He comes and sits down next to me on my cot. “Were you planning on changing your mind about eavesdropping on Jack?” he asks.

“No,” I say, scowling and crossing my arms. “What would it matter to you anyway? You don’t tell me about any of your plans.”

He looks puzzled and a little hurt. “What are you talking about?”

“You beat Marcus to a pulp in front of everyone for no apparent reason, or so it seems.” My voice is a little louder than I planned. “It was planned though; you didn’t lose control. He didn’t provoke you or anything, so you must have had a reason.”

“I needed to prove to the Dauntless that I am not a coward, that’s all.”

“Why would you need to do that?” I ask.

I remember the conversation that I listened in on between him and his mother, back when we were staying with the factionless. Evelyn suggested that he become important with the Dauntless. Perhaps this was a part of it. He never told me about that conversation that he had with her, either.

“You’ve seen what’s been going on,” Tobias says quietly. “If I can become important in the Dauntless, then perhaps I can have some influence on what’s going on. Change is going to happen, whether we like it or not. It’s already happening. Either I can have people change things for me, or I can have a hand in changing it.”

I nod at him.

“Are you going?” I ask him.

“No,” he shakes his head. “We already have several people going. The more people that go, the greater the chances there are of something going wrong.”

I look at him closely. He doesn’t have overly bulky arms like some of the guys in Dauntless, and some girls might not like the way that his ears stick out, but he looks good to me. His hair looks different from how it normally does.

“You’re not cutting your hair like the Abnegation anymore,” I comment, running my hand over his hair. “Is that because you want to look more Dauntless?”

“Yes,” he says, frowning.

He looks at me for a moment. “I’m sorry that I yelled at you yesterday,” he says quietly, putting his hand on my knee. “I shouldn’t have. You couldn’t have known what it was like.”

“It’s okay,” I reply. I don’t have his demons. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to walk in his shoes.

 

After the Dauntless spies leave, I try to fall back to sleep, but I’m too concerned with waiting for the results of the meeting. I sit on my cot impatiently, crossing my arms and tapping my feet. Tobias suggests that I calm down, but I can’t. I hate not having a part in finding out what is going on.

It seems like forever has passed when I hear a commotion in the hallway. “Someone get a doctor!” I hear a brown-haired girl from Dauntless shout. I jump from my cot to see what is going on.

“Lynn just ran here,” she says. “She says that Shauna was shot. Zeke and Uriah are bringing her in. Evidently, she’s losing a lot of blood.”

Will runs to grab Cara. I walk down the stairs to meet them at the entrance. By the time Zeke and Uriah arrive, carrying Shauna, Cara and another Erudite man have a sheet laid out for her. Not being an expert in medicine, there’s not much that I can do. I sit along the wall and curl into a ball, with my head in my arms. When will there be an end to all this destruction?

What happened? I hear Tobias ask Zeke.

“Jack showed up himself, but Jeanine had sent Max as her representative,” Zeke says. “Jeanine isn’t willing to compromise. They want us to return Eric, give up the Divergent, and provide a list of names of people that weren’t injected with the simulation serum the other day.”

“That’s not acceptable,” Tobias says. “So how did Shauna get shot?”

“Well, Lynn didn’t like the terms any more than we did,” Zeke continues. “Instead of leaving, as the rest of us were, she climbs up onto the bridge and shoots Max in the chest.”

“That doesn’t sound good at all,” Tobias responds.

“No. Anyway, we start running, but Erudite’s Dauntless minions are firing back at us. They hit Shauna in the back.” Zeke pauses. “I don’t know if she’s going to make it.”

“I’m sorry,” Tobias says. After Zeke arrived from his time spying over at Erudite, I learned that he and Shauna were a couple. I can’t imagine what he must be going through. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to Tobias.

 

Tobias sits down next to me. “Hey,” he says.

“Hey,” I say, looking up.

“It’s awful what happened to Shauna, huh.”

“Yeah. I hope she makes it.”

We sit in silence for a moment.

“I know you wanted to go,” Tobias says. “Thanks for listening to me. I don’t know what I’d do – ”

“Poor Zeke,” I say. “It’s going to be devastating to him as well.”

He puts his arm around me, and I lean my head against his shoulder, taking in deep breaths. This morning’s outcome would have probably been the same even if I had gone. Now, Shauna could be dying, and there’s nothing that anybody, other than her doctors, can do about it.

 

**Tobias**

I go to visit Tori in the infirmary. She needs to know what is going on, and I’m not of much use in the lobby watching the Erudite work on Shauna. Dauntless needs to make a decision regarding the meeting today.

“How are you feeling?” I ask, looking at her leg, which is propped up against a stack of pillows.

“Like I got shot.”

“There’s a little too much of that going on,” I comment.

“Any updates from the meeting?” Tori asks.

“Yeah. It’s not good.” I shake my head. “They want Candor to give up Eric, and they want them to give up all the Divergent, and those who have not been injected with the serum.”

Tori frowns.

“Do you think that you could get Dauntless together for a meeting?” I ask. “We need to figure out, as a faction, what to do.”

“Sure. One of the good things about being a tattoo artist in Dauntless is, I know just about everybody. I’m supposed to rest, but I don’t think that the doctors are going to be too mad if I go to a meeting. If they don’t like it, too bad.”

“Great.”

 

The Dauntless gather in the dormitory, between the rows of bunk beds. Tris is standing outside the room acting as a lookout, since she’s not really Dauntless and doesn’t really have a say in the outcome of this meeting.

“So, what were the terms of the agreement?” Tori asks, looking at Zeke.

“They want Eric to be sent back to Erudite, along with all of the Divergent,” he says. “They also want a report of all of the people that weren’t injected during their little raid the other day.”

“We can’t have Jack Kang making deals with the Erudite that affect us,” Tori says. “Where can we go?”

“Home,” I suggest. “We should take back what’s ours. We can break the security cameras so that the Erudite can’t see us. Why should we be kicked out of our own home?”

Someone in the crowd shouts “Yeah!” Other people in the crowd join in. It seems unanimous. We’re going back to Dauntless.

“But before we do that,” Bud, who works with Tori in the tattoo parlor, says, “we need to decide what to do about Eric. To let him stay here with the Erudite, or to execute him.”

“Eric is Dauntless,” Lauren says. “That means _we_ decide what happens to him. Not Candor.”

More yells of assent fill the room.

“According to Dauntless law, only Dauntless leaders can perform an execution. All five of our former leaders are Dauntless traitors,” Tori says. “So I think it’s time we pick new ones. The law says we need more than one, and we need an odd number. If you’ve got suggestions, you should shout them out now, and we’ll vote if we need to.”

“You!” someone shouts.

“Okay. Anyone else?” Tori asks.

“Harrison!” someone else shouts.

“I’m going to nominate Four,” Tori says.

“Are we sure that he’s loyal?” someone in the crowd asks. “His girlfriend is in Abnegation!”

I never considered that Tris could potentially throw a wrinkle in my plans to become a leader in Dauntless. There isn’t much that I can change about that though. I’m not going to leave Tris just to have more influence over Dauntless.

“Do you want to question Four’s loyalty?” Uriah asks. “He’s done as must for Dauntless as anybody else has! Whose side are we on anyway? We’re on the side of those that don’t want to kill or control others, right?”

The people in the crowd murmur in agreement.

“Abnegation is on the same side as we are on right now. Besides, she’s Divergent. She’s probably more Dauntless than a lot of the people here. She’s proven her abilities in many ways. She stopped the simulation. She jumped in front of a bullet in order to save someone’s life; and that needle we were all injected with? She pulled hers out by herself.”

“I think that we should elect Four!” someone shouts.

“Yeah!” shouts another.

“So who is in favor of electing Four?” Tori asks.

A cheer erupts from the crowd.

“Any more objections?”

Nobody says anything.

“Any other nominations?” Tori asks.

When the crowd is silent, Tori announces “Okay then, it’s official. Harrison, Four, and myself are the new leaders of Dauntless.”

With that, I may have the chance to change things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Comments are welcome!


	18. Crime and Punishment

**Tris**

Tobias asked me to stand watch outside the dormitory while the Dauntless have their meeting. I figured that that was a way that I could participate, considering that I’m not Dauntless. As I stood there, I heard shouts and cheers from inside the room. Nobody approached me to try to gain access.

A while later, the door opens, and Tobias emerges. “We’ve decided to execute Eric,” he says.

“Good. He tried to kill me.”

“They also elected me one of the leaders of Dauntless.”

I nod. So the stunt he played with Marcus worked. “Congratulations.”

Three loud pulses blast from the intercom – one long, and two short.

“Attention all occupants of Candor headquarters,” Jack Kang’s voice booms from the speakers in the hallway, “A few hours ago I met with a representative of Jeanine Matthews. He reminded me that we Candor are in a weak position, dependent on Erudite for our survival, and told me that if I intend to keep my faction free, I will have to meet a few demands.”

“How are you free if you’re catering to the whims of a dictator?” I ask aloud to the speaker, knowing that Kang would not be able to hear me.

“In order to comply with these demands, I ask that everyone make their way to the Gathering Place to report whether you have an implant or not. The Erudite have also ordered all Divergent to be turned over to Erudite. I do not know for what purpose.”

Kang’s voice sounds defeated and weary, and perhaps, he is. He isn’t really in a position of winning. I for one, however, do not intend on giving myself up and going out without a fight. I may have chosen Abnegation, but there is a Dauntless side to me that isn’t about to give up.

Another three rings come out of the loudspeaker, ending the message.

Tobias and I walk back into the Dauntless dormitory, which has now erupted into chaos. Dauntless are packing up their things. Others are shouting about Eric.

“We’re going back to Dauntless,” Tobias says. “Do you want to come with us?”

“Would I be allowed?” I ask.

“You can’t stay here. We’re on the same side; if anybody has any problems they can talk to me about it.”

“I’ll come.” I walk over to my bunk and begin to pack as well.

 

**Tobias**

All of the Dauntless, along with Tris, go to collect Eric. None of us care whether Jack is supposed to turn Eric over to the Erudite, he is ours to deal with. We haul Eric up to the top floor of the Merciless Mart, put him in a chair in the center of the room, and stand around him in a semicircle.

“Would you like me to tell me your crimes?” Tori asks, “Or would you like to list them yourself?”

Eric sneers, scanning the crowd. His face settles on me. “Why don’t _you_ list my crimes, Stiff?”

Although Tris is the only Abnegation in the room, he wasn’t talking about her. He was trying to get in one final jab at me; even in his dying hour, he wants to hurt others. Perhaps he still can’t let go of the fact that I placed first during initiation, while he was second.

“I am not a Stiff,” I say quietly, “but I will list your crimes. You worked with Jeanine Matthews in order to murder hundreds of Abnegation. You betrayed Dauntless and the ideals of Dauntless. You shot a boy in the head, and were going to shoot others if you hadn’t been stopped.”

“Do I deserve to die, then?”

“Yes,” I respond. “You have committed crimes that warrant execution. We have the right to execute you, under the laws of Dauntless.”

“Fair enough.”

Three guns sit in front of me. I empty them all of bullets, then place one bullet into one of the guns. I then shuffle the weapons, so that nobody knows which gun has the bullet in it. Tori, Harrison, and I will each have a gun and shoot at Eric, leaving to chance the person who actually ends up executing him.

I think to the day of the attack, when I was forced to shoot Molly to save the Abnegation man and the two kids. I think of my fear landscape, where I am forced to shoot the innocent. This is not either of those cases. Eric deserves to die. He deserves to die for his crimes, but it is apparent that his mind became warped and twisted long before the attack on Abnegation. It was apparent in the way that he treated the initiates this year; how he let Peter get away with stabbing Edward in the eye; how he forced me to throw knives at Al, which caused him to surrender and become factionless.

“Wait,” Eric says. “I have a request.”

“We don’t take requests from criminals,” Tori says.

“I am a leader of Dauntless,” Eric says, “And all I want is for Four to be the one who fires that bullet.”

“Why?” I ask.

“So you can live with the guilt. Of knowing that you usurped me and then shot me in the head.”

A small smile rises to my lips. Despite my hesitation with killing the innocent in my fear landscape, I have no problem with ending Eric’s life. “There won’t be any guilt,” I say.

“Tell me,” Eric says quietly, “because I’ve always wondered. Is it your daddy who shows up in every fear landscape you’ve ever gone through?”

His attempts at taunting me have no effect. If anything, it makes me almost happy to end his life. To put the world out of the misery that he causes it. I put a bullet into the chamber of one of the guns.

“You didn’t like that question?” Eric asks, trying to upset me. His twisted smile pulls at the piercings on his lip. “What, afraid the Dauntless are going to change their minds about you? Realize that even though you’ve only got four fears, you’re still a coward?”

I raise my arm out and point it at his head. “Eric, be brave,” I say, and then I pull the trigger.

Eric slumps over in his chair. I feel no remorse for what I’ve done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Leave a comment if you would like.


	19. Fun and Fear

**Tris**

I look at Eric slumped over in the chair, with a spray of blood surrounding his head. I think of my father who died; of the little boy who Eric personally shot. What little I know of Eric, he deserved to have his life cut short. The Abnegation in me thinks of his death as a tragic waste; but the Dauntless in me knows that it had to happen. He deserved it.

Around me, the crowd is loud. There seems to be a sense of joy and excitement in the air. Harrison is carrying Tori on his back; she is laughing. Will has his arm around Christina, and they are smiling; as initiates this year, I’m sure that they had to witness Eric’s cruelty firsthand, and are glad to see him gone.

On our way out of the interrogation room, we run into Jack Kang and a couple of Candor who are escorting him. “What have you done?” he asks. “I was told that Eric is missing from his holding cell.”

“He was under our jurisdiction,” Tori says. “We gave him a trial and executed him. You should be thanking us.”

Jack’s face was starting to turn red as a beet. “Why should I be thanking you?” he shouts.

“Because you wanted him to be executed too, right? Since he murdered one of your children?” Tori gives him an innocent look. “Well, we took care of it for you. And now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re leaving.”

“Wha – Leaving?” Jack asks, shocked.

Jack will no longer be able to meet Erudite’s demand to turn over Eric, nor will he be able to turn over the Divergent among the Dauntless, or the Dauntless that weren’t injected with the simulation serum. For a second, I almost feel sorry for him, but most of me feels like he’s getting what he deserves. He may not have an aptitude for Dauntless, but common decency and a little respect would have never allowed someone to cave into the demands that Erudite had placed upon him.

“I can’t let you do that,” Jack says.

“You don’t _let_ us do anything,” Tobias says. “If you don’t step aside, we will be forced to walk over you instead of past you.”

“Didn’t you come here to find allies?” Jack asks. “If you do this, we will side with Erudite, I promise you, and you will never find an ally in us again, you – ”

“We don’t need you as an ally,” Tori says, “We’re Dauntless!”

Everyone around me shouts. I say into Tobias’s ear, “With allies like Candor, who needs enemies?”

The crowd presses forward and rushes out the doors. The Candor in our path get out of the way. We run down the stairs. Excitement courses through my veins. I wonder to myself if it would have felt this way if I would have chosen Dauntless at my choosing ceremony instead of Abnegation.

I see Cara as we make our way out of the building. “Where are you going?” she asks, grabbing my arm.

“Dauntless Headquarters,” I say. She looks almost lost. “Go to Amity,” I add. “They promised safety to anyone who wants it. Candor won’t keep you safe here.”

I see her nod, and then run out the door with the Dauntless faction.

 

I have been to Dauntless before. I went a couple of times to pick up clothing for the factionless, and I went once in order to end Erudite’s attack simulation. This is the first time that I’ve actually been able to go to Dauntless and take a look around.

After we come into the building, Tobias takes me near a cliff with a waterfall pouring over it. While most of the paths don’t have rails, this part does.

“This is the Chasm,” Tobias tells me.

I stand at the rail, marveling over the water pounding against the rocks.

“It’s beautiful,” I say to Tobias.

“Beautiful, but deadly,” he emphasizes. “It’s been the source of injury or death for many.”

Bud is passing out paintball guns, while someone else from Dauntless is passing out paintballs. I’m excited, as I get to help them cover the security cameras with paintballs.

“Hey, Tris!” I see Zeke approach us. Zeke looks like he hasn’t had a lot of sleep lately, but he has a small smile on his lips.

“Glad to see you. How’s Shauna?”

“Shauna is stable. We had to take her here. She won’t be safe in Candor.” Zeke sighs. “She’s gonna survive, but she might be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of her life. That wouldn’t bother me, but how can she be Dauntless if she can’t walk?”

I think about what Tobias said when we were staying with the factionless; about how the older people were pushed out of Dauntless when they were no longer physically fit.

“Why can’t she be Dauntless?” I ask. “She can get around in a wheelchair, and there’s an elevator over there. Eric isn’t one of the leaders anymore, but Four is.” I look at Tobias. “Do you think that you could talk to Tori and Harrison about it?”

“We’ll definitely talk about that,” Tobias says. “I don’t see why she can’t stay.”

“Thank you. I’m gonna go shoot things,” Zeke says, giving me a hug. “Want to come?”

“It sounds like fun,” I say.

Bud suggests that we go shoot out the security cameras at the Pire. The thought of going back there puts knots in my stomach. My father died up there.

Tobias must sense my apprehension, because he puts his arm around me. “It will be okay,” he says.

When we get up to the Pire, we shoot out the cameras that are up there, but we end up getting into a paintball shooting match as well. Marlene starts it, sneaking around a corner and hitting Zeke in the leg. Zeke fires back, and we start to chase her. We run into Christina and Will, and they start to join us.

I can’t help but to laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun before in my life,” I tell Tobias. I love the freedom that I have here in Dauntless.

 

**Tobias**

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Tris so happy, shooting paintballs at our friends. As the game starts to wind down, we pass the fear landscape room. I have an idea. I pull Tris aside.

“Come here,” I say. “I want to show you something.”

I bring her into the fear landscape room. It doesn’t look like much. It’s a plain room with exposed piping overhead and graffiti on the wall, but when running the fear landscape program, it transforms into whatever your mind conjures up.

“What is this place?” she asks.

“This is the fear landscape room. We use it during Dauntless initiation. The initiates go through their fear landscapes as a final examination. It works a little like the aptitude test, but instead of showing you the dog, it shows you your greatest fears. Initiates have to overcome their fears in any way that they know how. They can either face their fear head-on, or they can slow down their breathing and calm down.”

She nods with understanding.

“When people go through their fear landscape, they know that they are in a simulation,” I continue, “so it’s like everyone is Divergent. It’s different than the aptitude test that we all take, or the fear simulations that we put all of the Dauntless initiates through. In those, only the Divergent know it’s not real.”

She looks at me with confusion. “Why are you showing me this?”

“I was wondering if you’d like to go through my fear landscape with me.”

She looks at me for a second. “I can do that?” she asks.

“Sure. I can set up the computer program so that it will go through my fears.”

She puts her hands on my waist. “Are you sure that you want to let me into your head like that?” she asks.

“Yes.” I want her to be able to understand me better; I can’t think of any way that could accomplish that more than this. I think about when I attacked Marcus in Candor. She wasn’t sympathetic to Marcus, but she couldn’t really see how much of a monster he really was. If I take her through my fear landscape, she may be able to understand more clearly.

She pauses for a second. “Okay, I’ll do it,” she says.

I program the computer to respond to my fears, and then I go get two vials of serum. I inject her with one vial, and I ask her if she wants me to inject her with the other vial. She looks a little nervous about doing it, but when I show her the spot on my neck to inject me, she plunges the liquid into my veins. I grab her hand and wait for my fears to inevitably show up.

The simulation soon takes over, and we are standing on top of a giant building. The wind whips around us, and I unconsciously grab on to Tris for support.

“You’re afraid of heights?” she asks. I nod. I feel like I’m going to panic, but Tris holding on to my elbow calms me, if only a little.

“It’ll be okay,” she tells me. “This isn’t real. We just need to jump off.”

I nod at her again. My head knows it, but the rest of me doesn’t.

“Let’s jump on three, okay?”

“Okay,” I say.

“One... two... three!” she says, and she pulls on my hand as we step off of the building. I feel myself sailing through the air for a moment, but suddenly, the scene changes and we move on to my second fear: confinement.

The walls start closing in on us. I cross my arms, trying to make myself smaller. The ceiling isn’t tall enough to accommodate my size, so I hunch over. I can feel my breathing start to get shallower.

“We’ll get through this too,” Tris says, reassuringly. “This might be the only time I’ve been happy to be so small,” she comments.

I’m having trouble breathing. Memories of my childhood, being stuck in our upstairs coat closet, flood back to me.

“You’ll need to face your fear head on,” she says. “We can try to make this place smaller.” She pulls me down, and we crouch down. As we do so, the ceiling lowers. She turns around and puts my arms around her.

“This is much worse,” I croak. I don’t enjoy being in this room, at all. But having my arms around Tris does feel good.

“We have to get your heart rate down,” Tris says. “Maybe we should talk about where this fear comes from.”

“It comes from my wonderful childhood,” I say. “My father used to lock me up in the coat closet for hours at a time.”

“I’m so sorry,” Tris says. “My mother used to keep our winter coats in there.”

She must not know what to say. “Let’s talk about something else,” I suggest.

“You know, most boys would love to be trapped in close quarters with their girlfriend.”

“Not claustrophobic people, Tris!” I squeak.

“Let’s try taking deep breaths, okay?” she suggests.

I focus on her breathing. In... and out. In... and out. I place my hand on her chest to feel her breaths; I also feel her heartbeat, which is rapid. In... and out.

Focusing on Tris helps me calm down, and suddenly, the walls open up, and we are free of the box.

I’m standing in front of a plain woman. I never remember what she looks like when I’m out of the simulation. I know that she’s innocent though, unlike Eric, who I shot earlier today.

“You have to kill her,” Tris says quietly.

I nod.

“She isn’t real.”

“She sure seems real.”

“If she was real, she would have already killed you.”

I pick up the gun and hold it out. As I look at the woman, she seems to take on some of Tris’s features. I shake my head. I have to do it. I close my eyes and pull the trigger.

As I watch her lifeless body crumble to the floor, I see her fade away; we are now in my old home in Abnegation. It’s now time to face my greatest fear.

Tris and I watch as my father walks down the stairs. He pulls his belt out of the loops of his pants, and approaches me. Tris grabs on to my arm.

“This is for your own good,” Marcus says, drawing his arm back. I cover my head with my arm in anticipation of the blow that is surely to come, but it doesn’t hit me. Tris stepped forward and took the blow for me.

Tris awakens my courage. Marcus begins to lash out at Tris. I step forward, determined to not let him hurt her any more. I push Tris aside, willing to defend her from him.

The room lights up, and suddenly we are back in the fear landscape room again.

Tris looks at me. Is that awe in her face? “You did it,” she says.

“You helped me get through it,” I say, putting my arms around her.

“Eric said that you had four fears. Is that normal?”

“Most people have between ten and fifteen fears.”

“I wonder how many fears I have.”

“We could find out,” I say. “I don’t know if you’d want to, though.”

 

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask one last time, before pressing run on Tris’s fear landscape. We don’t have to inject ourselves again because the transmitter is still active from going through my fear landscape. “In Dauntless, they go through more than a week of preparation before going into their fear landscape.”

“You’ll be with me, right? You can help me through,” she replies.

“Okay,” I say, pressing the start button.

The scenario starts, and the pipes above me disappear and turn into a bright blue sky. We’re standing in a field. Around me I hear birds chirping.

Tris looks confused. “This isn’t so bad, so far,” she comments.

Behind us, a crow flies in our direction, and lands on Tris’s shoulder. It starts to peck on Tris’s shoulder. She swats it away. That crow is joined by a couple of others. One lands on my shoulders, and starts to peck at my ear.

“Remember, this isn’t real,” I say to her.

“Okay,” she says, taking a deep breath and shooing away another crow.

As the crows increasingly surround her, she picks up her feet and tries to run; her feet get stuck in the mud. “I have an idea,” she says. She falls to her knees and sinks into the ground. Once she is laying on the floor, she dips into the ground, as if she was diving into a swimming pool.

We now find ourselves in a large glass tank. Outside of the tank, Peter, Eric, Jack Kang, and some of the Dauntless stand, watching us. Peter whispers something to Eric and they start laughing.

My feet feel wet. Below us, the bottom of the tank is covered in water. More water begins to seep in, and the water in the tank starts to rise. It covers our calves, and then our knees.

“Help!” Tris says, banging on the tank. “Let us out of here!”

The water passes our waists. “Calm down,” I tell her. “That’s how this scenario will end.”

“You’re right,” she says. “This isn’t real.”

The water is past our chests now. We both take deep breaths, as the water goes over our heads and fills the tank.

Tris gets a curious look on her face. She taps her finger against the glass. It starts to crack. She taps the glass again, and the crack grows bigger. The crack grows, until the water pressure against the cracked glass is so great that the whole wall breaks, and the water spills out of the tank.

We’re out of the tank, but we are still in the water. We’re in a different place though. What seems like an endless lake of water is in front of us. I’ve heard about places where there is nothing but water for miles, but I’ve never seen it in person though. In the water with us are jagged rocks.

A wall of water hits me and almost knocks me down. Tris was knocked down by the water. I reach my hand out and help her up.

The water pulls at my legs, trying to pull them out from under me. Tris grabs on to the rock behind us. The water slams into us again, pushing us backwards. As the water recedes, Tris hugs the rock, trying to stay put. She cries out in frustration. When the water has finished receding, she pulls herself onto the top of the rock.

The ocean disappears, and we are suddenly someplace else. There are ropes wrapped around our bodies, and our hands are tied together. We are standing on top of a pile of logs. Peter is standing in front of us, along with a group of Dauntless traitors wearing blue armbands and Abnegation initiates. They are carrying flaming torches. Peter lowers his torch and lights the stack of logs underneath us. He sneers at us. I look over at Tris. She is taking deep breaths and her eyes are closed. It looks like she is trying to think.

The flame licks at my feet. The flames are painful.

“Smell that, Stiff?” Peter yells. “It smells like your burning flesh.”

Tris is silent for a moment. She looks up at him. “Do you know what I smell?” she replies. “I smell rain.”

I hear thunder above us. A big fat drop of rain hits me. The flames start licking at my legs, but the rain starts to pour harder. The rain quickly turns into a downpour. The fire starts to die down.

The rain dies down, and we’re in a bedroom in Abnegation. One of the walls is covered with mirrors. On the wall opposite of the mirrors is a window.

Tris gasps, and I see what she is seeing. A man with a scar on his face is looking through the window. I’m sure that I’ve seen the scarred man before, but I can’t remember from where. Tris grabs onto my arm.

I hear banging against the wall. The scarred man at the window is joined by dozens of featureless men, banging against the wall.

“This is only a simulation,” I remind her.

“Simulation,” she mutters.

The men in the window have found a door. They begin to flood the room.

Tris reaches at the mirror behind her. She slides it to the side; somehow, her mind must have turned it into a door leading to a closet. On a shelf in the closet are two guns. She grabs one and starts shooting at the men who are entering the room. I grab the other one and start shooting the men as well.

We run out of bullets, but still, the men keep coming. Tris grabs me. “Come on,” she says. We enter the closet together.

She gives me a half-smile. “This wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have those guys out there coming to get us,” she says. I feel a little uncomfortable being in a closet, but at least Tris is with me, and the walls are not collapsing, like in my fear landscape.

I start to hear banging on the closet door. Tris takes a deep breath. She puts her hand against the wall opposite of the mirror. It slides open.

“I think I’m starting to get the hang of this,” she says, as we enter another room.

 

I don’t remember what I was doing. I feel like I just woke up from a dream, but I can’t remember what it was. I look around. Tris is here with me. We’re in a plain bedroom in Abnegation. It must be Tris’s room. I don’t know how we got here.

I smile at her. She must have invited me here. I walk towards her. I love her so much.

I put my hands on her hips and start to kiss her. I want to forget about all that has happened in the world and just focus on her. Tris is all that I want.

I unzip her jacket. I push it off of her shoulders and onto the floor. I kiss her neck, and walk her slowly backwards towards the bed. I have never wanted anyone other than Tris, but now, this is all that I want; all I can think of. If she invited me to her bedroom, she must want this too.

Tris looks at me. I can see panic in her eyes. “I am not going to sleep with you in a hallucination. Okay?” she says.

Suddenly, I wake up from my daze, and I remember where I am. I’m not in Tris’s bedroom. I’m in her fear landscape. She’s afraid of me?

I pull back from her. She wraps her hands around my arms and kisses me. I kiss her back, and she laughs.

 

We’re in another room. It’s dark all around us, and I can barely see. Tris has a gun in her hand. Caleb and her mother are standing in front of her. Jeanine Matthews is in the room as well, pointing a gun at her head.

“Do it,” Jeanine hisses. “Do it, or I’ll kill you.”

Tris looks at Jeanine. I could see that her eyes were full of fear.

“Go ahead, Tris,” Caleb says. “I understand. It’s okay.”

I know what it’s like to have to shoot someone in your fear landscape. I have to shoot someone every time I go through mine. I don’t have to shoot one of my family members, however. Maybe that’s because I’m not that attached to either of my family members.

“No,” Tris says.

“I’ll give you ten seconds!” Jeanine shouts. “Ten! Nine! Eight!”

“Tris,” Natalie says, “We love you.”

“Seven!”

“Shut up!” Tris says.

“This isn’t real,” I remind her, “although I know that it’s not easy to have to shoot someone, even in a simulation.”

“Six! Five! Four! Three!”

“No,” Tris says, dropping her weapon. In the simulation, Tris is choosing to sacrifice herself rather than to kill her remaining family members.

“Two! One!”

The gun goes off, and the lights come on. We’re once again in the fear landscape room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that you like this chapter. Leave a comment if you like.


	20. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tobias and Tris need to talk about fear landscapes... and Evelyn.

**Tris**

I look down at the floor, embarrassed. I can feel my cheeks get hot. “I didn’t think that you’d end up seeing something like that,” I say. _What is wrong with me?_

Tobias puts his hands on my arms and looks at me. “Are you afraid of me?” he asks softly. “You know that I’d never hurt you.”

I shake my head. “No, I’m not afraid of you. It’s just – sometimes I wonder – what’s in this for you.”

Tobias shakes his head. “What do you mean, what’s in it for me? You’re an idiot, Tris.”

“I am _not_ an idiot,” I say, pouting. “I just wonder… with all the girls that you could have chosen, why did you choose me? I mean, if you’re just looking for… you know… that…”

“What? Sex?” Tobias growls. “If that’s what I was looking for, you wouldn’t be the first person that I’d go to.”

“Maybe I should just go to Amity,” I say. I start to pull away from him.

“Stop, Tris,” Tobias says, tightening his grip on my arms. “I know you’re not like that. I don’t want a girl like that. I want a girl like you.” He pauses for a moment, then brushes a stray hair out of my eyes. “I never met a girl like you in Dauntless.”

I look up at him. His expression is kind.

“So what are you afraid of, really? Are you afraid that I’m going to leave you?”

“No,” I say, taking a deep breath. “I’m afraid… of being with you… with anyone. I’ve never been involved with someone before, and… you’re older, and I don’t know what your expectations are, and…” He must think that I’m rambling. I feel like such an idiot. I just want to shrink into a corner and disappear.

“Tris,” he says, putting his arms around my waist. “I don’t know what delusion you’re operating under, but this is all new to me, too.”

“Delusion?” I ask, raising my eyebrows. “You mean you haven’t… Oh. I just assumed…” Part of me thinks that everyone must think of him the same way that I do. Everything wonderful all wrapped up into one perfect male specimen.

“You assumed wrong,” he says. His cheeks are pink, and he looks embarrassed. “You can tell me anything, you know.”

I rest my head upon his chest. “I love you,” he says, tightening his embrace around me. “I don’t want to do anything that you’re not ready for.”

“I love you too,” I repeat, looking up at him. “If I didn’t… I don’t think that I’d be so afraid; because I do… well… want you… but…”

Tobias kisses me, ending my stammering words. “Someday,” he says, “if you still want me, we can,” he pauses, “we can…”

I stop him with a kiss. “Are you afraid of me too, Tobias?” I ask.

“Terrified,” he replies.

“Maybe you won’t be in my fear landscape anymore,” I say, a small smile coming to the corner of my lips.

“Then we can call you Six,” he replies.

“We’d be Four and Six,” I say. I put my head against his chest and listen to his heartbeat. It feels as rapid as mine is.

“We’d better go downstairs for dinner,” Four says. “People will be wondering where we ran off to.”

 

**Tobias**

Tris and I go downstairs, where most of Dauntless is gathered for dinner already. We sit down next to most of our friends.

“Where have you been?” Christina asks.

“We were doing some Dauntless training,” Tris says.

“Is that what they’re calling it now?” Christina says, winking at us.

“That is _not_ what they’re calling it,” Tris says, shaking her head. Her cheeks are bright pink. “Tobias took me through my fear landscape.”

“So how many fears did you have?” Will asks. “Fifteen?”

“Seven,” Tris says.

Uriah raises his eyebrows. “Impressive,” he says. “Lauren said that there was someone with only four fears a couple years ago.”

“That was Four, genius,” Tris says, laughing.

“Oh.” Uriah’s cheeks turn pink. “You’ll definitely have to try the chocolate cake.” He waves a forkful of cake at her, changing the subject. “It’s a Dauntless specialty.”

“So I heard,” Tris says. “I’m glad that I’ll get the chance to try it.”

Marlene grabs Uriah’s hand under the table. Lynn noticed it as well. She frowns, then takes a giant bite of chocolate cake.

“You’re going to get sick if you continue to eat that fast,” Uriah notes.

Lynn scowls. “Watching you two making eyes at each other like that is going to make me sick anyway,” she snarls.

“What are you talking about?” Uriah asks. His face turns beet red.

“We’re not stupid. Why don’t you just make out with her and get it over with?”

Marlene glares at Lynn, faces Uriah, and kisses him on the mouth.

Lynn picks up her tray and leaves.

“What was that all about?” Zeke asks.

“I don’t know,” Hector says, shrugging his shoulders. “She’s always angry about something. Of course, maybe it’s just because I’m her younger brother.”

Will grabs Christina’s hand under the table as well.

Tris finishes her peas and meat loaf, and takes a bite out of the famous Dauntless cake. “Mmm, this is really good!” Tris exclaims. “What have I been missing all of my life?”

“Told you the cake was good,” Uriah says.

 

After we finish eating, I take Tris down the path below the chasm where our feet are close to the rocks. The path is almost invisible if you don’t know what to look for, but Zeke showed it to me shortly after I arrived in Dauntless. Zeke, Shauna and I had some good times together here; now the path seems to always stick out to me. I like to go here when I want to get away from everyone. We sit down at the edge, our feet hanging over the water.

“I need to ask you something,” I say. “About the war.”

“What are you thinking about?” Tris asks, putting her hand near my hip.

“I’m thinking about making an alliance with Evelyn.”

Tris twists her mouth up. “That’s probably not a good idea.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Evelyn wants to destroy Erudite. Don’t you think that we’ve had enough bloodshed?”

“Erudite isn’t going to stop their attack. They’re going to ally with Candor, and then they’re going to go after us.”

Tris looks at the water crashing against the rocks for a moment. “Perhaps you’re right. That doesn’t mean that we should completely destroy Erudite though. Why take out the good people of the faction along with the bad?” She pauses. “It’s just like when Abnegation was destroyed. We know that Marcus was bad, but should all of Abnegation be taken out just because of one person?”

“It’s not just one person in this case. We at least have half of Dauntless over there. And who knows how many people in Erudite agree with the war?”

“Evelyn’s going to want to take control of the city. Do we want that?”

“We don’t know how Evelyn would be as a leader.”

“Weren’t we always taught in Abnegation that power should go to those that don’t want it?”

“That worked so well with Marcus, didn’t it.” I bite my lips, thinking about my father.

“Marcus is a despicable human being,” Tris says, “but he wasn’t a terrible leader in Abnegation.”

“We need the factionless.”

“I suppose you’re right. I don’t like it though. You need to be careful.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in so long! I really need to finish publishing this - it's just not acceptable.
> 
> I will be writing another book for NaNoWriMo this year, but it will be original fiction, rather than book 3 of this series. I still plan on writing books 3 and 4 at some point though. But first, maybe I should finish publishing this book before NaNo starts!


	21. Something Must Be Done

**Tris**

We leave the chasm hand in hand. Tobias puts his arm around my waist.

“Would you like to stay in my room, rather than at the pit?” Tobias asks.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I’d like to, but –”

“It’s okay,” Tobias says. “I was Abnegation too, remember? I can sleep on the floor.”

“Okay,” I agree. “I hate asking you to sleep on the floor, but…”

“I just want to be with you Tris.”

We stop to pick up my bags, which were left next to the cots in the pit. I don’t see Christina, which is fine with me, because I don’t really want to deal with her interrogation. We walk to the Dauntless apartments, down a long dark hallway. Tobias stops at a room and unlocks it. We go inside.

“This is my place,” he says. “It’s not fancy, but it’s mine.”

I look around the room. It is a sparsely furnished with a door leading to a bathroom on one wall. The words “Fear God Alone” are decoratively painted along one wall; other than that, the room is plain. A blue quilt lies on the bed.

“It’s nice,” I say.

I go into the bathroom to change into some sleeping clothes. Tobias stares at me when I get out.

“What?” I ask, noticing his gaze.

“I just love you, that’s all.  I'm glad you're here.”

“I love you too.” I kiss him quickly before crawling into bed. I didn’t realize that I was so tired. I watch him as my eyes shut, and smile. He is lying on a nest of blankets on the floor. He’s the last thing I see before I fall asleep.

 

The next morning, we go down to have breakfast, and everyone is devastated. Lynn is crying. Marlene has her arm around her friend, trying to comfort her.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, setting my tray of scrambled eggs, bacon, and an English muffin down on the table.

“We lost Hector last night,” Uriah says quietly. “There was another simulation. Marlene, Hector, and Kee were the only ones affected. Christina woke me up, because they were talking about the Divergent. We followed them up to the roof. Marlene warned us, under the simulation, that every two days Erudite was going to do something like this to us again, unless someone that is Divergent turns him or herself in. Then they all tried to jump off. Me and Christina tried to save them, and we saved Marlene and Kee, but Hector jumped off the roof.”

I couldn’t believe it. “I’m so sorry, Lynn,” I say.

Harrison walks up to our table. “Four, we have an emergency meeting this morning after breakfast,” he says. “I’ll see you in the meeting room in twenty minutes.”

“Okay,” Tobias says. He takes a bite of his English muffin. “I guess this is what they chose me for,” he says to us.

“They won’t do this anymore if we send someone that’s Divergent to them,” I say. “Why don’t we just send a volunteer?”

“Who would volunteer?” Tobias asks.

Everyone was silent for a moment and looks at each other. Specifically, they look at Uriah and me.

“I’d go,” I say. “If it was to save who knows how many Dauntless lives, why not?”

“No,” Tobias says decisively. “I can’t have you do that.”

“Why not?” I say, looking down. “I’m not really that important,” I mumble. “I’m not even a really good Abnegation member.”

“You’re important to me,” Tobias says quietly. “Besides, Erudite is not Candor. How do we know that they wouldn’t back out on their deal once they had you? We’ll figure out something at the meeting today.”

I frown, but I don’t say anything.

 

After breakfast, Christina and I go down to the laundry room to wash clothes. Maybe doing some work will help me get my mind off what’s going on. “Four is so stubborn,” I grumble.

Christina laughs. “So are you.” She adds laundry soap to the washing machine. “You’re perfect for each other in that way.”

“If I go to Erudite, people will be saved!”

“How do you know for sure?” Christina says. “You know they’re trying to conduct experiments on the Divergent. Maybe they’d just use you to create a more effective serum. Then they could use you to kill more people.”

I shrug. “You think so?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that if I was Four, I certainly wouldn’t want you to volunteer. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to Will.”

“Even if he could save others? That sounds a little selfish.”

“Well, I’m not Abnegation. And neither is Four, any more.”

The door opens; Zeke comes in. “I’m glad that I found you,” he says. “Your mom is here.”

“My mom?”

“Yeah. She wants to talk to you.”

“Okay.”

“The laundry isn’t going to do anything anytime soon,” Christina says.

My mother was waiting in the cafeteria for me. She gives me a hug. “I’m glad to see you,” she says.

“Hi,” I say. “Good to see you too. How are things?”

Mother sighs. “I’m sure that you know that things aren’t going well,” she says, sitting down.

I nod. “Jeanine put some people under a simulation last night, and a boy stepped off the roof,” I say. “One of my friend’s brothers.”

“I heard about that. I’m so sorry. Jeanine isn’t going to stop there. She’s going to want to take over the whole city.”

“She said that if we sent a Divergent, then the attacks against us would stop.”

“Maybe for a while,” Mother says, “but why would she want the Divergent? She wants to develop a serum against the Divergent. She wants to experiment on one of us so that she can kill more people.”

Mother rests her elbow against the table and rests her hand in her palm. “I need to tell you, that we need to try to get that Abnegation information out to people. Soon.”

“Why? Why is it so important?”

“We all know that Jeanine wants to take over the city,” Mother says, “but so does Evelyn. I’ve known that for quite a while. You know that I was working with the factionless prior to the attack. Anyway, I ended up dealing with Evelyn. We can’t trust her. Her hatred of Erudite runs deep. You know that she transferred originally from Erudite?”

I shake my head.

“Well, she hated Erudite just about as much as your father did. Maybe more. She wants to destroy Erudite, and I’m afraid that she’s probably going to want to destroy that data that Erudite has as well… including medical data that could help people, and Abnegation’s information that they stole. Evelyn won’t want Abnegation’s data to get out any more than Jeanine does.”

“Why? Why is Abnegation’s data so important?”

“Once the information is out, they won’t be able to control the city any more.”

“Why not?”

“The information tells us that there is life outside the city.”

We don’t really think about what’s outside the city very much. As kids, we are told that the world outside the city is dangerous; that’s why there’s a fence surrounding the city, and why Dauntless guards protect us. The city had been peaceful for as long as anybody could remember; that is, until the Erudite attack.

“Isn’t it dangerous outside the city?”

“It’s dangerous everywhere, don’t you think?” Mother says. “At this point, it’s probably safer outside the city.”

I nod.

“Erudite is going to want to attack Dauntless, I’m sure of that,” Mother says. “I don’t know if Dauntless has any other choice but to ally with the factionless, however distasteful that may seem. They can’t trust Evelyn though. We also have to get that information out, no matter what Evelyn says.”

“Okay.”

 

**Tobias**

“We can’t allow Erudite to tell us what to do!” Harrison states. We have been discussing what to do about last night’s simulation, and the threat made to us. “We need to send soldiers out there to stop them.”

“We’re not ready to send soldiers,” Tori says. “They still have half of our faction.”

“Why don’t we post guards tomorrow night at all the places that can be dangerous,” I suggest. “We should post guards to the roof access, around the chasm, all of those places. If we post multiple guards, even if one of them falls under the simulation tomorrow night, then the others can stop them.”

“Good idea,” Tori says.

“What about sending one of the Divergent? Would that work?”

I shake my head. “Jeanine might be lying. Plus, we’ll have a bigger problem once they develop the serum that they want to make that will affect the Divergent.”

We hear a knock at the door.

“Who could that be?” Tori asks, opening the door. “We’re in a meeting.”

Natalie Prior was standing at the door. “What are you doing here?” I ask. I turn to Tori and Harrison. “This is Natalie Prior. She was Andrew Prior’s wife; he was one of the leaders of Abnegation. She risked her life to try to retrieve some data that the Erudite stole.”

“I hate to bother you,” she says quietly. “I thought that this might be important though.”

“Do you have information for us?” Harrison asks.

“Yes,” she replies. “Like many of us Abnegation that have survived the attack, I have been living away from my home. I’ve been staying with the group of Abnegation that has been living with the factionless. As you probably already know, Evelyn Johnson, Marcus’s estranged wife, has taken a position of leadership among them. You may also know that in terms of her leadership style, she can be just as ruthless as Jeanine is.”

“She hasn’t killed anybody like Jeanine,” I say.

“I’ve spent many years working with the factionless. I’ve seen Evelyn’s rise to power. I’ve seen the strong-arm tactics that she’s used to rise to prominence. She has plans to try to rule the entire city.”

“What would you suggest that we do?” Harrison asks. “Erudite is going to attack us. It’s just a matter of time. We need Evelyn’s help in order to protect ourselves.”

“I’m not saying that you don’t,” Natalie says. “I do advise you to be cautious around her. Don’t trust her any more than you trust Jeanine. And one more thing…”

“What’s that?” Tori asks.

“Erudite stole some very important information from us in Abnegation. Evelyn won’t want others to see it, because if the information contained inside becomes public, it will take away some of her power.”

“What’s the information about?” Harrison asks.

“It’s about what’s outside the city. There’s a video that everyone needs to see. If I had the video, I would show it to you, and it would make more sense. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to recover that information after Jeanine stole it during the attack on Abnegation.”

“We’ll have to take this under consideration,” Tori says.

“Thank you for your time,” Natalie says, nodding her head, in true Abnegation fashion. “Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. If you would like, I could stick around Dauntless for a while, in case you need my help.”

“Thank you,” Tori says. “I’m sure that would be helpful. There’s a group of Dauntless staying in the Pit, but if you would like, we could get you more comfortable accommodations.”

“I’m sure that the accommodations in the Pit will be fine,” she says. Of course she wouldn’t ask for a room of her own. She’s Abnegation. It would be considered selfish to ask for special treatment. She slips out the door.

“So what do you think that we should do?” Harrison asks.

“We should probably broadcast that information,” I say. “Whatever it says, it was important enough for most of Abnegation to die over, and for Natalie to risk her life to try to recover.”

“We have to get it first,” Tori says.

“We’re Dauntless,” I say. “That shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll put together a group to break into Erudite to go get it.”

“What about allying with Evelyn and the factionless?” Harrison asks. “I say that we do ally with them, although we should be cautious. We need the factionless to defend ourselves against Erudite and the other half of Dauntless.”

“Agreed,” Tori says.

“I agree as well,” I say. I know that I should be more trusting of my own mother, but she did abandon me when I was nine years old. Since she contacted me a couple of years ago, we haven’t spoken a great deal either. Although I would like to trust her, I’m not sure if I should, yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :-) I was inspired last night and could barely sleep while my mind outlined the fourth and final book. While I probably won't be able to write it for a while, the outline is now in digital format and I think that it will turn out well. In the meantime, here's another chapter.


	22. An Alliance of Necessity

**Tobias**

“Hey, Tris,” I say, sitting down with her for lunch after my meeting with Dauntless leadership. “I saw your mom today.”

“Yeah, she’s here,” Tris says. “She’s joining us for lunch. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine,” I reply. “Natalie is nice.”

Tris smiles. “I think so, but then again, I’m biased. She was one of the main reasons why I chose Abnegation over Dauntless, after all.”

I put some ketchup and a couple of pickles on my hamburger. “We’re going to try to recover the Abnegation information that Erudite stole.”

“Really?” Tris says, incredulously. “So what are you going to do, raid Erudite?”

“If we have to,” I reply. “It might not come to that though. Remember when we went to Candor? They arrested us because they saw the video of us in the control room on the day of the attack. There were copies of that information available at the other factions. What if Abnegation’s information is available to everyone, if they know where to look?”

“That’s a good idea.”

“I’m going to the control room this afternoon to see if I can get the data myself. If not, we’re going to need to get some help.”

“We could talk to Cara. She’s Erudite. She might be able to find the information.”

“I don’t think we want to risk going back to Candor to find Cara.”

“I don’t think that she’s there,” Tris says, shaking her head. “When we left Candor, she stopped me. I told her that she should go to Amity. She wouldn’t be any safer in Candor than we would be.”

Tobias takes another bite of his hamburger. “Maybe you could go to Amity and go talk to Cara about getting the information.”

“I suppose. Johanna doesn’t really like me that much, but if I’m just visiting for the day, then I guess that she shouldn’t be too upset to see me.”

Christina and Will sit down to join us. “How did the meeting go?” Will asks.

“It was fine. We’re going to set watches at the chasm and at the rooftop entrance tomorrow night, so that Erudite won’t be able to catch us off guard tomorrow night.”

“That’s a good idea,” Will says, picking up a fry.

“Tris’s mom stopped by,” I say. “She convinced us to get the Abnegation information from Erudite and make it public.”

“How are we going to do that?” Will asks.

“First, I’m going to check the computers here. Maybe I can gain access to their servers and find the information that way. If not, Tris is going to go to Amity and we’re going to see if we can get Cara to help us.”

“Ooh, road trip!” Christina exclaims. “Can I come too?”

“If it’s okay with Tris, I suppose,” I say.

Tris nods. “I’d love to have you come with us.”

“Didn’t Erudite attack you there?” Will asks. “In order to get to Amity, you have to go through the gate. Dauntless traitors will be there blocking access.”

“We could disguise ourselves,” Christina suggests. “If they think that we’re Amity, then they won’t have a problem with letting us out.”

“We’ll need to get some Amity clothes,” Tris says. “Mother can get them from the factionless.”

“How are we going to get there?” Will asks.

“Amity is bringing in a shipment of food later today,” I say. “I can ask them if they can let us use a vehicle. Do you know if Natalie knows how to drive a car?”

“Yes,” Tris says. “She never drove very often, but sometimes she needed to during some of her volunteer projects with the factionless.”

“Great!” I say. “I’ll check out the servers this afternoon. If I can’t get that to work, then we’ll go to Amity tomorrow.”

After lunch, I go up to the control room. The last time I tried hacking into anybody’s computer system was before the war; I was trying to find out what was going on, and I had to hide my activities from everybody around me. Today is a bit different, because I can tell people what I’m doing without getting into trouble.

I find my way into Erudite’s files, but I can’t find anything. I look through folder after folder, but I don’t see anything of interest. Max’s computer is no longer available for me to peek into, as it was before the war. Erudite isn’t keeping their plans in any place that I am able to access. Perhaps Cara will have more luck when she looks tomorrow, assuming that Tris can find her at Amity.

When I go back downstairs to the Pit, Christina and Tris are teaching Natalie how to play a card game. “I forgot how fun this was,” she says, laughing.

“What do you mean?” Christina asks.

“I used to be Dauntless before I transferred to Abnegation,” Natalie says.

“No surprise here,” I say, sitting down. “That explains a lot.”

“Any luck?” Tris asks.

I shake my head. “Erudite doesn’t have any useful information up there; at least, none that I was able to access. I guess you guys are going to Amity tomorrow.”

“I’ll need to go get some Amity clothes, then,” Natalie says. She looks down at her watch. “The next train is leaving soon. I better catch it.”

“It’s so strange to see mother running to catch a train,” Tris says, watching Natalie leave.

“We could say the same about you,” Christina says.

“It still feels a little strange too,” Tris says. “I’m getting better at it, though.”

 

**Tris**

“Hurry up and eat,” Christina says, sitting down at breakfast the next morning. “We’ve got to get you ready to go to Amity.”

“That’s not going to take very long,” I say. “We just have to put on our Amity clothes.”

Christina gives me a strange look. “You’re not going to pass for Amity looking like you just stepped out of Abnegation. First, we need to give you a makeover.”

“Okay,” I agree. I don’t mind Christina’s makeovers. She seems to like doing them, and I kind of like the attention.

“Stay safe today, you two,” Will says, putting his arm around Christina. “Who knows what Erudite has planned for today? Today’s the deadline for Dauntless to send a Divergent to them.”

“Don’t remind me,” I say, making a face.

“You know why we’re not sending anyone,” Tobias says quietly, looking straight ahead.

“I do, but that doesn’t mean that I’m happy with it.”

“That’s enough,” Will says. “None of this will matter once this war is over. If Abnegation’s information is as life-shattering as Natalie says it is, then maybe the war will be over sooner rather than later.”

“I hope you’re right,” I say, scooping up another spoonful of cereal.

“Looks like you’re done,” Christina says, shooing me away from the table. “Let’s get you ready to go.”

We stop by the pit on the way to Tobias’s room, where we’re going to get ready. “Can’t forget my makeup bag,” she says.

When we get to his room, we sit on the bed.

“Four doesn’t have too much stuff,” she says, looking around.

“He grew up Abnegation,” I remark. “Old habits die hard, I guess.”

Christina looks into her makeup bag. “We’ll start with this,” she says, taking out a black tube. When she takes off the cap, I recognize it as lipstick. “Hold still.” She puts the color on my mouth and holds up her mirror so I can see.

“Let’s see… I don’t think I have the right color blush for you, so we’ll skip that.”

“That’s surprising, since our skin tones are so similar,” I comment dryly.

“Very funny,” she says, giving me a playful push in the shoulder. “Maybe after this is all over, you can get your own makeup and I’ll teach you how to use it.”

“That’s assuming that life never returns to normal again,” I say. “It wouldn’t really do me any good, living in Abnegation.”

“Yeah, that’s gonna happen,” Christina comments.

“Probably not.”

Christina curls my eyelashes and offers to tweeze my eyebrows, but I decline.

“Your hair looks pretty good already,” she comments. “I’m so glad you still don’t wear it in an Abnegation bun still.”

“I like it this way too.”

“Let’s get our dresses on.”

I change into the dress that Natalie dropped off for me the evening before. She did a pretty good job finding one that was actually my size. “She must have gotten this one from some kid,” I say, “considering that it fits me.”

Christina laughs. “Okay, let’s go find your mother.”

We walk out the main entrance to Dauntless, where I first walked in the day that I went to pick up donations for the factionless and met Tobias. Mother is waiting outside with a truck.

“You two look nice today,” Mother comments.

“Thank you,” I say. I can feel my cheeks turning pink. We generally don’t think about things like how we look in Abnegation. That would be selfish; but I guess that Abnegation standards don’t really matter much right now.

As Mother drives down the road, the car bumps along the debris left in the street. Abnegation has been working at repaving the roads, but funding for things like pavement is in short supply, so there seems to always be roads that need to be repaired.

Christina seems to be having a great time bouncing around in the truck. She whoops with delight as the car bumps over one pothole after another.

“Make sure you behave like you’re Amity when we reach the gate,” Mother reminds us.

 

Dauntless rebels stop us when we reach the gate near Amity. Their blue armbands stand out from the rest of their uniforms.

“Hello,” she says, rolling down the window. “It’s a nice day today, isn’t it?”

“Not really,” a dark skinned man grunts at us. He’s holding a gun in his hand. “What’s going on today?”

“We had an early morning delivery to make,” Mother says. “Just returning.”

I plaster as big of a smile that I can at him. I imagine that Amity would be smiling, even when encountering people with guns.

“It’s easier to keep cold things cold when we bring them in the morning,” Christina says. “We tried to bring a milk delivery late in the day once, and that didn’t work out very well. The milk was warm by the time we arrived. People complained that it went bad faster. I didn’t hear the end of that one for quite a while.”

“That’s fine,” he says. “You can go ahead now.”

“Thanks!” I say, giving them a wave.

Another guard types the combination to the gate into a keypad, and the gate slides open. Mother smiles at the guard as he waves us through.

“I figured that the Dauntless wouldn’t appreciate it if I kept talking,” Christina says.

“That was smart of you,” I say.

“When I first got to Dauntless, Four complained so much because I asked him simple questions.”

“Really?” Tobias never seemed to have that reaction with me.

As we approach Amity, I see the wooden buildings and Amity’s greenhouse grow. Mother parks next to a wooden building used for sleeping. I enjoy the pleasant smell of green grass and warm earth as I step out of the car.

“It’s so peaceful out here,” I say. “You could almost forget that there’s a war going on inside the city.”

“Yes,” mother says. It feels as if I hear a touch of sadness in her voice.

We enter the greenhouse. Johanna is in there, weeding some plants.

“Hello,” Mother says.

“It’s good to see you again,” Johanna says to us. “After the way that you had to suddenly leave, I’m pleasantly surprised.”

I shudder at the remembrance of the Erudite attack.

“This is Christina,” I say, pointing to my friend. “She’s Candor-born Dauntless. Christina, this is Johanna.”

“Nice to meet you,” Christina says, offering her hand for a handshake.

“I’m glad to meet you as well,” Johanna says. “How can I help you today?”

“We’re looking for someone,” I say. “Is Cara here? She’s an Erudite refugee.”

Johanna thinks for a second. “Yes, I think she got here a few days ago. She might be in our computer lab.”

“Thank you,” I say. We start to walk off. I turn around, remembering something. “Johanna?”

She looks up from her gardening.

“I just thought that you should know. It’s getting pretty bad in the city. A lot of people might die. I’m not sure if you wanted to stay here, doing nothing, when that happens; even if some of your faction does.”

She twists her mouth unpleasantly at that.

 

We ask a young Amity boy for directions to the computer lab, and he cheerfully helps us out. We find Cara in there, along with a brown skinned Erudite, looking at some diagrams on the screen. The other Erudite is tinkering with some wires and electronic pieces that are scattered around a table.

“Hello,” she says, looking up from the screen. “What brings you here?”

“We need your help,” I say. “Are you able to access Erudite files from here?”

“I should be able to,” she replies. “Are you looking for anything in particular?”

“During the attack on Abnegation, Erudite stole some of their information. We need to get it back. My mother,” I say, pointing to my mom, “wants to make the information public.”

“It looks like Dauntless is going to ally with the factionless, at least to defend themselves against Erudite,” I add. “Evelyn wants to destroy Erudite’s data after they attack.”

Cara frowns. “There’s a lot of data that shouldn’t be destroyed. Erudite does have technology that is used for making weapons, but we also have technology that is used to heal people and farm more efficiently. We need to try to save most of that data as well.”

“Do we need to get Tobias to get some hard drives?” Christina asks.

Cara shakes her head. “We won’t need that. In fact, I can get most of the data right from here, at the Amity computer lab. I can copy most of the information through the network. Once I do that, I can lock the information here, so that it won’t be able to be destroyed. I can also send a copy over to Dauntless and to the Abnegation computers; Jeanine didn’t steal all of the computers. That way, even if Amity is attacked and the hard drives here are physically destroyed, there will still be copies of the data.”

Cara spends some time pressing buttons and going through files on the computer. I used computers in school, but outside of going into different files and running some programs, I’m fairly clueless about how they work. Tobias is much better with computers than I am.

After a while, Cara frowns.

“What’s wrong?” Mother asks.

“I am able to back up Erudite’s information, but I’m not able to find Abnegation’s data,” Cara says. “I’m not sure where it could be.”

“Maybe it’s on Jeanine’s computer?” the brown-skinned Erudite suggests.

“Hmm…” Cara says. “Maybe you’re right. If the data is as important as you say it is, then perhaps Jeanine wouldn’t put it on the network. She might keep it in the lab.”

“Jeanine would have reason to keep other people from seeing the data,” Mother says. “If other people see it, then it will take away some, or maybe a lot, of her power.”

“We’re going to have to get into Jeanine’s lab to get it then,” Cara says. “We’ll have to come up with a plan to do so.”

“We have some useful gadgets that might help,” the other Erudite says. “Like this one that I’ve been working on,” he holds up a small round disc.

“What does this do?” Christina asks.

“We brought this one from Erudite headquarters,” he says. “Were you there when the Dauntless traitors attacked Candor?”

Christina and I nod.

“Do you remember when the glass shattered?”

“Yes,” I say.

“Well, they used one of these. It makes a noise that will shatter glass. We can use this to cause a distraction. Erudite headquarters has a lot of glass. It will be quite a distraction.”

“Good idea, Fernando,” Cara says. “We’ll have to bring one of those.”

“So, if Dauntless is allying with the factionless, and Evelyn wants to destroy the Erudite data,” Fernando says, “then is Dauntless okay with us breaking in to get the data?”

“I think that Dauntless sees allying with the factionless as a necessary evil,” I say.

Fernando starts gathering up the electronic pieces and starts putting them into a bag. “We’ll want to put together a plan with Dauntless in order to most effectively get the data back,” he says. “Should we head back this afternoon?”

“Sounds good to me,” Christina says.

 

**Tobias**

I catch the train that afternoon. After yesterday’s Dauntless leaders’ meeting, I sent a message to her that we wanted to put together a peace agreement. I know that I’m going to have to lie to her about what to do about Erudite’s data, but since I’m not Candor, lying about it only bothers me a little bit.

Evelyn jumps on the train a few minutes later. Edward is with her. After Peter stabbed him in the eye and he left Dauntless, he has seemed to take a position as Evelyn’s lackey. Today he’s wearing a blue eye patch with a black X stitched onto it.

“Nice meeting location,” I note.

“It seemed safest,” she says. “We don’t really want Erudite to notice, do we?”

I nod.

“So,” she says, “you wanted to discuss an alliance?”

“An alliance?” Edward snorts. “Who gave you the authority to do that?”

“I was elected into Dauntless leadership,” I say. I notice Edward lifting his eyebrows; clearly, he is impressed. “We had a meeting yesterday. We decided that an alliance would be the fastest way to end this conflict.”

Evelyn pauses in thought for a second. “An alliance would make us the most powerful force in the city,” she says. “I will agree to your alliance, under a certain set of conditions. We want a guaranteed, equal place in government after Erudite is destroyed,”

“Fine,” I say.

“We want full control over the Erudite data after the attack.”

“What are you planning to do with it?” I ask. I don’t really want her to put anybody under a simulation, or try to, at least.

“Obviously, we will destroy it. Depriving the Erudite of knowledge will prevent them from taking control again.”

“Fine,” I say, lying. I know that Tris and Christina are on a mission to at least save the Abnegation data that Erudite stole at this minute. I also know that I can easily copy all of the important data, such as the technological innovations that the Erudite uses to farm, onto Dauntless servers without Evelyn knowing. Marcus was the one that was good with computers. Evelyn was always fairly clueless when it came to advanced computer operation.

“If we agree to those terms, what do we get in return?” I ask.

“You’ll have our much-needed manpower, that will allow us to mutually take Erudite headquarters, and you will have an equal place in government with us.”

“Tori, I think, would like to have the opportunity to rid the world of Jeanine Matthews,” I add.

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Evelyn says. “I don’t care who kills her; I just want her dead.”

“It’s a deal then,” I say. I hold out my hand, and she shakes it.

“We should convene in a week’s time,” Evelyn says. “We can meet in neutral territory. Most of the Abnegation have graciously agreed to let us stay in their sector of the city to plan as they clean up the aftermath of the attack.”

“Most of them?” I ask.

“Yes,” Evelyn says. “I’m afraid your father still commands the loyalty of many of them, and he advised them to avoid us when he came to visit a few days ago. They agreed, just as they did when he persuaded them to exile me.”

“They exiled you?” I ask, incredulously. “I thought you left.”

“No, the Abnegation were inclined toward forgiveness and reconciliation, as you might expect. But your father has a lot of influence over the Abnegation, and he always has. I decided to leave rather than face the indignity of public exile.”

Edward turns to Evelyn. “Time to go,” he says.

“See you in a week,” she says. The train dips to street level, and they both jump off. I remain on board and take the train back to Dauntless.

When I get back, Tris, Natalie, and Christina have already returned. Cara is with them, along with another Erudite.

“This is Fernando,” Tris says, gesturing to the other Erudite.

“Nice to meet you,” I say. I look at Tris. “We made an alliance with Evelyn today. As expected, she said that she wanted to destroy the Erudite data.”

“We figured that,” Tris says. “Cara was able to copy all of the essential Erudite data onto servers around the city, so that won’t be a problem. She wasn’t able to find Abnegation’s data, though.”

“We think that it might be on Jeanine’s personal computer,” Cara says.

“We’re going to need a plan to break into Erudite in order to get this data,” Tris says. “Do you think that we’ll be able to get Dauntless’s help with this?”

“Sure. Our alliance with the factionless, including the deal to destroy Erudite’s data, is one of necessity,” I say. “We’re supposed to meet back with the factionless in a week. We’ll put together a plan to get the data before then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter. Hope you like it!


	23. Erudite Must Go

**Tobias**

We set watches over the rooftop entrance and at the chasm. I have the first watch at the chasm, along with Lynn. We thought it was a good idea to have at least one Divergent on watch at all times. Tris is taking the first watch at the roof.

I continually scan the pit, looking for signs of movement. A few people are moving around; they haven’t gone to sleep yet. I listen to the roar of the waterfall behind me. Occasionally, people end up jumping off the chasm as a way to commit suicide. There have even been a few murders at the chasm. Then there was that little stunt that Eric tried to play during initiation, where he forced Christina to hang over the chasm for five minutes, or choose to drop out and become factionless. It's a dangerous place.

My former instructor, Amar, died at the chasm. The investigators said that it was a suicide, but I find that to be a little suspicious. Amar and I weren’t particularly close, but I knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t unhappy. He had warned me about revealing my Divergence; Amar was Divergent as well.

“Do you think the Erudite is going to act this evening?” Lynn asks.

“Probably,” I say. “If they don’t, it would probably be because we covered up all of the cameras and they can’t see what they’re doing. More than likely, they designed the simulations so that they don’t have to see what’s going on. It just might be a little more difficult for them to send someone on a suicide mission. Especially since they don’t know for sure who is in Dauntless.”

I hear a banging downstairs in the Pit. Christina has woken up, and bumped into a nearby cot. She turns, and shuffles forward slowly. She bumps into another cot.

“That looks strange down there,” I say. “Christina isn’t usually that clumsy.”

Lynn frowns. “Should we find out for sure if she’s awake? Maybe she’s sleepwalking.”

“Yeah,” I say. “We don’t really want her climbing up the walls of the Pit if she’s bumping into things. Do you want to go down? I don’t really want to yell, because we might wake people up.”

“Okay,” Lynn says. She takes off down the walkway leading to the Pit.

I continue to scan the Pit for movement. Will sits up in his cot. _Maybe they were planning on going somewhere together_ , I think.

I watch as Lynn reaches Christina. I see her try to talk to her; Christina keeps on moving. Lynn waves a hand in front of her face, but Christina keeps on moving. Lynn tries to grab on to her arm, Christina keeps on going, pulling Lynn along.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see some movement. One of the younger Dauntless girls is emerging from the hallway leading to the Dauntless dorms. I don’t know her name. She’s younger than Tris, and has pink hair.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She doesn’t respond. She doesn’t even seem to acknowledge that I even said something to her in the first place. She keeps on walking towards me.

Out of the corner of my eye, Lynn is now trying to keep Christina from walking off the side of the paths along the side of the Pit. Justin, one of the Dauntless born initiates this year, is now awake; he’s following Will, and trying to make sure that he doesn’t fall down.

The Dauntless girl is still coming straight at me. It looks as if she is going straight to the chasm.

“You need to stop,” I say. She keeps on walking towards me.

When she reaches me, I grab her. “You are not jumping off the Chasm today,” I tell her, although I know that she can’t actually process anything that I’m telling her. I put my arms around her waist so she cannot go anywhere.

Christina reaches the Chasm; Lynn grabs on to her. Justin holds on to Will so he cannot go anywhere.

Christina turns her head towards me. Her eyes look blank, as if there is no consciousness behind them. “You have been warned,” she says, in a monotonous voice, “Erudite is losing patience with you. Send a Divergent to Erudite, or we will sacrifice more people. You have two days. If you do not comply, Erudite may have to take more action than just sending some people to their deaths.”

Christina, Will, and the girl who I am holding on to try to step forward, but we are holding tight onto them, and so they go nowhere.

About a minute later, the girl I’m holding onto shakes her head. She looks at me. “What’s going on?” she asks. “Why are you holding onto me?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see that Christina and Will are waking up as well. “You were under Erudite’s simulation,” I say. “You were going to walk into the Chasm. I was holding on to you so that you wouldn’t fall.”

The girl looks alarmed. “Thank you,” she says, trying to smile. “I’m Lisa.”

“I’m Four,” I say.

“I know that,” she says. “Everybody knows you.”

“Oh,” I say. I’m a little embarrassed. The Abnegation part of me isn’t used to the fame of being a Dauntless leader. “I’m glad that we were able to save you.”

Christina is holding onto Will. “What a sick joke,” she says to him. “Trying to get us to jump off together.”

Christina and Will walk back down to the Pit together. Lisa goes back to her room. Lynn and I are standing at the Chasm.

“I don’t think that Erudite is going to try to attack again tonight,” I say, “but we might as well finish our shift anyway, just in case. I don’t want to see that happen to anyone else.”

Lynn nods.

 

After I finish my watch, I go back to my room. Tris is already there; she has already changed into her night clothes.

“Anything happen at the Chasm?” she asks, rubbing her eyes.

“Yes,” I say quietly. “Christina, Will, and a young Dauntless girl were targeted.”

Her eyes widen. “Oh no!”

“It’s okay,” I say, putting my hands on her shoulders. “Lynn and I, along with another Dauntless that woke up, were able to stop them.”

“Thank God.”

I put my arms around her waist. She leans her head against my chest. “I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you,” I whisper.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you either,” she says back.

I go to grab a blanket that’s sitting on a chair; I’ve been sleeping on the floor since we returned to Dauntless. I don’t want to make Tris uncomfortable. Tris watches me while she sits on the bed and frowns.

“It’s not fair to you, Tobias,” she says. “This is your room, you shouldn’t have to sleep on the floor.”

I shake my head, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to her. “I wouldn’t feel right making you sleep on the floor.”

She reaches her arm behind me, rests it upon my hip, and leans her head on my shoulder. “I wasn’t talking about that Tobias,” she says. “I know that you won’t try to hurt me. It’s okay if… if you want to sleep here.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. After going through her fear landscape, I don’t want to risk doing anything that might make her uncomfortable.

“It’s okay.” She pulls back my blue comforter and slides underneath.

I pull back the other side of my comforter and lie down next to her. She faces me, putting her arm over my waist. “I love you,” she says, eyes heavy with sleep.

“I love you too,” I say, closing my eyes.

 

**Tris**

After breakfast, Tobias asks me to join him at a Dauntless leaders’ meeting. My mother, Christina, Cara, and Fernando are there as well.

“We had another attack last night,” Tobias says. “Christina and Will, along with a young Dauntless named Lisa, were put under a simulation and almost stepped into the Chasm. “Fortunately, Lynn, myself, and Justin were there to stop them.”

Tobias looks around the room. “Before they tried to jump, Erudite had another warning for us. Christina said, under the simulation, that Erudite is losing patience with us. From the sound of it, they might be planning on attacking us soon.”

“We have our alliance with the factionless,” Harrison says. “We’ll have to inform them.”

“Yes, we can send them a message today,” Tobias says. “We need to make a plan about the Abnegation data though. The factionless are not going to want to share the information.”

“Is it that important?” Harrison asks.

My mother nods. “It would be very bad if this data is lost.”

“As you know, Tris, Christina, and Natalie went to Amity yesterday to find Cara,” Tobias says. “We were going to ask Cara to try to retrieve the data for us. What did you find, Cara?”

“I was able to get into Erudite’s computer systems,” Cara says. “I was able to retrieve some of our important data, such as that which deals with technology, and send it out to the other factions through the network in order to back it up. A copy of the information is now saved on Dauntless’s servers as well. I had a problem, however, finding Abnegation’s data. My theory is that Jeanine did not save Abnegation’s data on the Erudite servers, but on her personal computer.”

“So what does that mean?” Tori asks.

“This means,” Cara says, “that in order to publish Abnegation’s data as we hope to, we’re going to have to break into Jeanine’s personal lab.”

We all look at each other for a minute.

“What’s the best way to do that?” Tori asks.

“That’s what we need to figure out,” Cara says. “I know where the laboratory is, but Jeanine doesn’t just let anybody go in there, especially now. Jeanine knows that we are defectors from Erudite, so I’m sure that her trust in us has eroded.”

“Maybe we could go back to Erudite, saying that we are sorry and see how illogical our move to defect was,” Fernando suggests, “like Caleb did.”

“What?” I asked. “I saw Caleb at Candor.”

Fernando gives me a sorrowful look and shakes his head.. “When Caleb left Candor, he went back to Erudite. I’m not sure what he told her, but last I know, he was working for her, trying to develop serums.”

A knot builds up in the pit of my stomach. How could my brother go back to Erudite, after all that happened?

“I’m not sure that would work,” Cara says. “Jeanine is not dumb. Her high intelligence is what got her the job as leader of the Erudite in the first place. I don’t think that she would give us access to her personal lab so soon after returning. From the sound of things, it doesn’t look like we have a great deal of time to save the data. Once Evelyn gets her hands on the data, it’s going to be too late to save it.”

“We’re going to have to break in then,” I say.

“How are we going to do that?” Tobias asks. “There are Dauntless guards all over the place.”

“Jeanine’s lab has a very sophisticated security system,” Fernando says.

“I don’t like the idea of waiting until the last minute,” Tris says, “but on the day that Dauntless and the factionless attack Erudite, they’re going to be distracted, right?”

Everybody around the table nods in agreement.

“What if some of us sneak into Erudite during the attack, break into Jeanine’s lab, and get the data then?”

“That might work,” Tori says. “How would we sneak into Erudite without the factionless knowing?”

“Evelyn agreed to allow you to kill Jeanine,” Tobias says. “She’s not going to have a problem with you going into her lab, although if any of the factionless are with you, they might have a problem with you broadcasting the data.”

“True,” Tori says

“We’ll need to get either Cara or Fernando into the lab,” I say. “They know how to do all of that computer stuff.”

“They’ll need help getting there though. We’ll need to have some Dauntless escorting them.”

“I could go,” Christina says. “Will could come with me.”

“The factionless are probably going to expect all of Dauntless to help fight Erudite,” Harrison says.

“We could say that they are still really upset about being a part of the simulation,” I suggest. “If they’re still too shook up about almost jumping off a cliff, Evelyn won’t expect them to fight.”

“So how does everybody get into the lab?” I ask.

“We could go on the roof,” Natalie says.

“Jeanine’s lab is on the top floor,” Cara says.

“Dauntless has some slings that we use to go ziplining,” Tori says. “If we find a way to string a rope between a nearby building and Erudite headquarters, then we could use the slings to get us between one building and the other.”

“Once we get into Erudite, we still might have trouble getting into Jeanine’s lab,” Fernando says. “It’s guarded by an alarm system that causes people to go into a simulation.”

“We’ll need to send someone that is resistant to simulations as well, then.”

Everybody looks at me.

“Tris is the most simulation resistant person I know,” Tobias says. “She was able to lie when she was under truth serum.”

“What?” Christina says.

“It was a small lie,” Tobias says, “but she lied anyway. She told everybody to go to the building on North and Fairfield during the Abnegation attack not because she thought it was the most logical place to go, but because we had planned on that as a meeting place prior to the attack. During our interrogation, she lied about it while under truth serum.”

“She lied under truth serum?” Christina asks, incredulously. “I didn’t think that it was possible.”

“Evidently, it is,” I say. “I can go.”

“What were your aptitude test results?” Fernando asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

I bite my lip. Admitting Divergence still feels dangerous to me. “Abnegation, Dauntless,” I say, “and Erudite.”

“Three results?” Cara asks, incredulously. “How’d you manage that? The test isn’t designed to be able to give three results.”

“I administered her test,” Tori says. “She initially refused to make a choice between the cheese and the knife, so I had to change a few things while she was taking it. Since I was born Erudite, I knew how to do it.”

“Okay, so Tris will go as well, in order to get past Jeanine’s security system,” Harrison says. “Along with Cara, Fernando, Christina, and Will. Any objections?”

Tobias is frowning. I know that he doesn’t like the idea of my going, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Okay, then it’s set then,” Tori says. “When we attack Erudite, you guys will break into Jeanine’s lab and release the data.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment if you like.


	24. The Raid Begins

**Tobias**

“Are you ready for today?” I ask, watching Tris’s eyes flutter awake. “Today’s the big day.” I kiss her on the forehead.

“I’m a little nervous,” Tris says. “When we broke into the control room during the Abnegation attack simulation, I had you with me.”

“I wish that I could go with you,” I say. “I wish that you didn’t have to do this at all. Evelyn will be expecting me to be with her though, and nobody else is more resistant to serums than you are.”

“I want to go, Tobias. “I want to help out.”

“I know you do,” I say. Tris told me before that she was too selfish for Abnegation, but she always wants to get involved if it will help someone else. Even though I know that she wants to do something, I can’t help but to feel protective of her.

I went through my fear landscape yesterday; it had changed. I still had four fears, but they were different. My fear of Marcus has turned into my fear of becoming Marcus one day; it was my third most powerful fear. My fear of killing someone has turned into my fear of losing Tris; it was the last fear that I went through.

After the latest simulation attack, we didn’t want to risk waiting any longer before attacking Erudite. Evelyn agreed that we should start the attack today. Tris’s data retrieval team went over their plans to invade Jeanine’s lab, while Dauntless leadership met with Evelyn and her factionless lackeys in order to finalize today’s attack.

We go down to breakfast together, and join our friends at our usual table. “Nervous about today?” Christina asks.

“It’s a good thing that Dauntless was one of the factions I have an aptitude for,” Tris laughs a little nervously, “since it looks like I’m going to find out what it’s like.”

“I would think that it was a little Dauntless of you when you went to end the attack simulation on Abnegation,” Will says.

“I didn’t really have the chance to think about it ahead of time though,” Tris says, pouring some syrup on her pancakes. “The attack happened, and we had to act to stop it.”

“It would make sense to be more nervous when you have time to think about it,” Will says. “When you are under stress, adrenaline kicks in and causes you to act.”

“Do we really need one of your Erudite lectures today?” Christina says, smiling.

“I just thought that it might help,” he says.

“I’m just going to be glad when today is all over,” Tris says. “Assuming that everything goes well.”

“It’ll be fine,” I say, trying to be reassuring. I know that I could be lying though. All sorts of things could go wrong today. What if something happen to Tris when she tries to get past Jeanine’s security system, or even when she’s trying to enter the building? What if our half of Dauntless, combined with the factionless, can’t overtake Erudite? I don’t really want to think about it. I shouldn’t think about it. I just need to act.

Everybody else must sense my lack of confidence; or perhaps they know that no matter how confident you are, you can’t guarantee anything in war. Most of the meal is spent eating somberly, poking at our food.

I look at my watch, after most of us have finished eating. “It’s about time to go,” I say. “We have ten minutes.”

“Meet you at the entrance soon,” Christina says, stepping away from the table.

 

**Tris**

We stop by Tobias’s room in order to grab the things that we need for today. I have a pack with the things that I’m going to need, including a sling and some rope. I also have a weapon in case I need it. Tobias has a weapon for his part of the attack.

We walk to the Dauntless entrance. We’re going to have to go different ways once we leave Dauntless, as we don’t want Evelyn to know what’s going on.

“Stay safe,” I say.

“You too.” He puts his hands on my face and starts to kiss me.

“I didn’t think that Abnegation did things like that,” Will says teasingly.

“Where do you think that Abnegation children come from?” Tobias asks.

“Sheer force of will?”

Christina grabs my arm. “I hate to break you two up, but we need to go.”

I hesitate. “One more thing,” I say to Tobias. “Make sure to remind Dauntless not to trust the Factionless today. From what my mother has been saying, I don’t think that Evelyn wants to stop at just taking over Erudite.”

He nods. “Definitely.”

I wave to Tobias as we start to walk away. We meet up with Fernando and Cara.

It takes a while to walk to Erudite. We know that leaving this early, we’ll be getting there before the rest of Dauntless though.

“It’s strange to see you dressed like that,” I say, looking at Christina’s blue Erudite clothing. Mother picked up some blue Erudite clothing in case we need to blend in with the rest of the faction at some point. My pack also contains a spare set of black clothing.

“I might say the same thing,” Christina says, “if I haven’t seen you wearing almost all of the other faction’s clothes before.”

“It’s strange to be wearing these clothes again,” Will says, “even though I grew up Erudite.”

When we arrive at Erudite, the streets look clean. A few people are walking around the streets. You wouldn’t know that there was going to be an attack today, by the looks of things.

We look at the buildings around the Erudite headquarters.

“This might be a good building to use,” Christina says. “It’s abandoned, taller than the headquarters, and the street between the two buildings is pretty narrow, so it would be easier getting onto the roof.”

Cara looks at the building. “I think you’re right,” she says. “We should go inside now. Who knows what the streets are going to be like once the Dauntless and the factionless start arriving.”

“We can set up a lookout,” I suggest.

We climb several flights of stairs until we are at a floor that is higher than the Erudite building. Even though I love running, I hate climbing stairs. It’s one of my least favorite things about Abnegation: we think that it’s selfish to make other people wait for elevators, so we almost always have to end up climbing stairs whenever we’re in a large group.

“This is a good floor to stop at,” Christina says. We look inside a room with a view next to Erudite headquarters. “This room has a fire escape. We can secure the rope to the stairs right here.”

The Erudite rooftop is interesting looking. It looks like it was designed for people to go up on top of. Something that looks like a little room sticks out from the top of the roof. There is also a large letter ‘H’ printed on top, in the middle of a yellow circle. The H looks like it was painted on top years ago. There are hooks on the roof as well, surrounding the H in the circle.

Now all we have to do is wait until it’s time to move.

 

We sit around for what seems like hours, taking frequent looks out the window.

“What’s that?” Cara says, looking out the window. “Candor is here.”

I rush to the window to take a look. They are walking in step, holding weapons. It looks like they are under a simulation. “They don’t look like they know what is going on.”

“How could that be?” Christina asks.

“Erudite was working on a transmitter that lasted longer,” Fernando says. “Normally, transmitters dissolve shortly after injection, lasting just long enough for the serum to work. We had developed a transmitter that wouldn’t dissolve right away.”

“So, could these be the same people that were injected when we were in Candor?” I ask.

Fernando nods.

“We were injected when we were in Candor,” Christina says. “Why aren’t we affected?”

“Erudite doesn’t know where you are,” Fernando says. “It assumes that you are with the loyal Dauntless. That’s why they were able to put you under a simulation earlier this week. They know where the Candor are, and they didn’t black out all of their cameras either, so it made it easy for Erudite to control them.”

“Plus, we don’t know what was going on in Candor after we left,” I say. “Jack Kang didn’t really seem like a strong leader who was willing to stand up to Erudite’s demands.”

The Candor line up, surrounding the street. I notice that people of all ages are standing there, from moms and dads to teens and younger children. “I can’t believe they’re using them like this,” I say. “It was bad enough when they had Dauntless adults do it, but kids? It’s sick.”

“That’s why we need to get rid of her,” Christina says, with a hard edge to her voice.

“It’s a good thing that we got here earlier,” Cara says. “Otherwise it would be hard to get past them.”

“I hate to think of what it’s going to be like later on today,” I say, “when Dauntless and the factionless get here.”

We retreat farther back in the room and wait. I start to drift off to sleep, when gunshots awake me from my half-alertness.

Will looks to peek out the window. “They’re here,” he says. “It looks like one of the Candor fired first.”

More shots ring out. A minute later, I hear an alarm going off in the Erudite headquarters across the street.

“They must be evacuating,” Christina says. “It’s about time to move.”

“Okay, I’m going to tie the rope to the fire escape first,” Will says. “We’re going to want to have the rest of you holding on to the rope, just in case something happens. I’ll go first, and Christina can go last. They’re going to be the two most dangerous parts of crossing into the building, so we’re going to want to have someone in Dauntless take those roles.”

“Sounds logical,” Cara says.

“I’m going to rappel down the building a bit, and then push off against this building so that I swing onto the Erudite rooftop,” Will says. “When I get to the other side, I’m going to tie off the other end of the rope to that hook on top of the building over there; so I’m going to need you guys over here to give me some more rope. Once we get the rope secured over on the Erudite rooftop, the rest of you can slide down on your slings, like the Dauntless do when they go ziplining.”

“What about the Candor? Aren’t they going to hear us? And the rope? Should we just leave it tied between the two buildings?” Fernando asks.

“The Candor are facing away from us, and I don’t think that they can hear us,” Will says. “Once we’re inside Erudite, I don’t think that it matters if they discover a rope between the two buildings. It’s not like we’re going to try to sneak in the building like this again.”

“I can’t remember what it was like when I was under the simulation, but when Hector stepped off the building, he couldn’t hear me,” Christina says. “If Fernando’s theory about the transmitters is right, then they were injected at the same time as we were, and the simulation would work the same.”

Will takes the rope out of his pack, and ties it to the fire escape. We have plenty of rope left to hold on to, in order to make sure that the rope is still secured, even if the anchor around the fire escape gives way.

“Be careful, Will,” Christina says, giving him a hug. “I don’t want to see anything happening to you.”

“You too, Christina. I love you.”

Will grabs onto the rope and swings out over the railing, slowly descending. After he lets himself down a ways, he pushes himself away from the building with his feet. The rope – and him – swing over, about halfway across the street. Will swings back into our building. When his feet reaches our building, he rebounds, pushing away from our building again. This time, he and the rope swing over the top of the Erudite building. Before he swings back down to our building, he stretches out his feet and lands on the roof.

Christina lets out her breath. “It reminds me of when I joined Dauntless, and I had to jump off the train onto a roof,” she says quietly. I nod, remembering when I had to make that exact jump during the Abnegation attack.

“Let out some rope,” Will calls to us. We untie the fire escape knot and give him some more rope to work with. He ties his end of the rope onto a hook that was placed on the roof.

“Who’s going next?” Cara asks.

“I’ll go,” I say. My trip will be a lot safer than what Will had to go through. I have harness that goes around my waist and between my legs, that hooks on to the rope. I also have a sling that I climb into as I slide from one rooftop to the other.

I look past the end of the Erudite building, where the Candor are standing. Factionless and Dauntless soldiers have arrived. I can see some of them, but I know that most of them are going to be penetrating the Erudite headquarters. Candor probably won’t cause us any trouble, but our mission could be in jeopardy if Evelyn finds out what’s going on and tries to stop us. Even if we are seen, I trust that Tobias could figure out a way to explain us away. It wouldn’t be out of place to send soldiers into a building undetected through a rooftop during a raid, after all.

After I hook everything up, I jump. The trip is short, but exciting. If I knew that bringing attention to myself at this moment wouldn’t have been a good thing, I would have screamed out with joy.

Cara slides down after me, followed by Fernando. Christina is last, because if for some reason something happens to the rope tied to the fire escape, we feel that she’d be best able to handle it. I smile when Christina steps her foot onto the roof. At least we made it safely this far

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like this chapter!


	25. Protect the Data

**Tris**

We open the door to the little building on the rooftop. Cara leads the way after we walk inside. This is her home, after all.

There are Erudite on this floor, but they don’t take much notice of us. They are in a panic over the Dauntless and Factionless that are now invading the building. “Run for your lives!” I hear one of them yell. Another person yells “protect the data!” I see one Erudite woman run through the hall carrying a box full of papers.

We walk through what seems like a maze of hallways. Everything looks the same; it amazes me how anybody in Erudite would be able to find their way around. “This is it,” Cara says, stopping at a door. She turns around to look at us. “This is Jeanine’s personal lab. This is where your serum resistance is going to come in handy. Once you go inside, the door is going to lock and scan you. Once you make it through the simulation, the door will unlock again, and we’ll be able to come in and help you.”

I nod. Taking a deep breath, I walk inside.

The room is blue all over, from the tiles on the floor to the ceiling overhead. I hear the door close and lock behind me. Narrow blue beams of light shine throughout the room. They’re so bright, I have to put my hands over my closed eyelids in order to stand the intensity.

I hear a calm, feminine voice speak. “Beatrice Prior, second generation,” it says. “Faction of origin: Abnegation. Selected faction: Abnegation. Confirmed Divergent. Status: Intruder.”

I have no clue how this computerized voice knows who I am, or what second generation means.

I hear a click, and the room starts to fill with a blue mist. I try to cover my mouth to prevent myself from breathing in the fumes. I walk as best as I could to the door at the other end of the room, but the room is dark.

Dim lights start to turn on in the room. It looks almost like I am in Dauntless. There is a circle in the middle of the room, like a ring someone in Dauntless might want to fight inside.

I see the door on the other side of the room.

“Intruder,” a voice says. “You have five minutes to reach the blue door before the poison will kick in.”

_What poison?_ I think to myself. I must be in a simulation. _Will this room spray poison in real life if I don’t make it out of here in five minutes?_

I start walking towards the blue door. The room seems pretty normal, other than the threat of poison. Almost like my fear landscape, that I went through with Tobias the other day. I know if Jeanine invented this security system, however, it will not be a normal room.

As I walk to the door, someone appears in my path. She is small and blonde, looks like the reflection that I see when I look in the mirror.

For a second, I wonder if she is a reflection. I try to wave at her, but she does not wave back.

“Hello,” I say. My double doesn’t say anything in return. I have to think. My double is probably going to try to stop me as I head towards the door.

I step forward. My double steps in front of me, blocking my way. I step to the side, and she steps to the side as well. I try to run, but my double grabs me, digging her arm into my wounded shoulder. She throws me on the floor. I realize, if I had been in her position, that I would have done the same thing.

We’re equals, I realize. She has the same thoughts as I do. She has the same strengths as I do. Whatever I can do, she can do.

I get up, ignoring my pain, and try to grab her by the shoulders. She is able to block me. She knows what I will be doing.

_Think_ , I tell myself. What is the difference between us? She wants to prevent me from going for the door, and I need to get to the door. There is one big difference between us though. I am more desperate. If I fail, the consequences will be dire. If she fails, then the program ends. I need to behave accordingly, and take desperate measures.

I start to see purple spots dancing at the edges of my vision. The room must have started releasing poison. I need to make a move, and I need to make it now.

I take out my gun. My double takes out hers. I don’t like the idea of shooting myself, but I realize, my double must be thinking the same thing. I can’t hesitate. I fire, then duck. She fires just before she is hit, but she misses me. I watch her slump to the floor, presumably dead.

I can feel the poison start to affect me. I can barely breathe. I must make it to the door. I rush to the door as quickly as I can, although by the time I reach the door, I feel as if I won’t be able to hold on to life much longer. I open the door and take a deep breath from the non-poisoned air. My vision quickly returns to normal. Fortunately, the poison doesn’t seem to be long-lasting once you have access to a normal oxygen supply.

I look around the room that I have now entered. The room is blue, just like the room I left, but in the center of the room is a table. There are pictures and diagrams taped to the wall. I notice that some of the pictures are of people that I know: me, Tobias, Marcus, Uriah, and Mother. Next to the photos is a list of chemicals, some of them scratched out. I guess that the scratched out chemicals are the ones that don’t work on the Divergent.

Someone opens the door to the room that I just left. Cara and Fernando join me.

Ahead of me, I see another door. As I open the door, I see Jeanine Matthews.

I point my gun at her.

“I need you to release the Abnegation information,” I say.

“Beatrice Prior,” she says sweetly. “Faction of choice: Abnegation. Don’t you think that you should put the gun down now? Shooting me wouldn’t be very selfless of you.”

“I might have chosen Abnegation,” I say, “but you obviously know just as well as I do that I’m Divergent. You know as well as I do that I’ve been staying at Dauntless.” I refer to the photos of the Divergent in the room next door. “You stole information from my faction. It’s time for you to release it.”

“Releasing that information would be a big mistake,” Jeanine says. “That’s why I took it in the first place. It would be very dangerous to release it.”

“Dangerous for everyone, or dangerous for your hold on power?” I ask. “I think that it’s the latter. Now access the data for me.”

“No.” Her fake sweetness has turned to calculated coldness.

“Your time is up,” I say, shooting her in the foot. Jeanine screams and drops into her chair. “Evelyn is coming to destroy _all_ of your data. I want you to release Abnegation’s data or I’ll shoot your other foot.”

“Fine, fine,” Jeanine says, holding up her hand. “I’ll send it out.” Jeanine has a low tolerance for pain. “Where do you want me to send it to?”

“All of the faction leaders,” I say.

“I also want you to send it to my tablet,” Cara says. “That way, I can verify that the information is out, because like it or not, this computer will be destroyed. If I can verify that it’s out, then none of us will hurt you.”

Jeanine moves her mouse around and types something on the computer. It looks like she is sending out an email, but I never spent that much time using a computer, so I’m not sure.

I hear a ringing behind me. Cara takes a small tablet out of her pocket. She makes a few swipes along the tablet.

“Hello,” I hear. “My name is Amanda Ritter. In this file I will tell you only what you need to know,” I hear.

“It looks like she sent it,” Cara says. “Let’s go. We have what we need.”

I stop pointing my gun at Jeanine. “We won’t hurt you,” I say, “but I cannot guarantee what anybody else will do.”

We leave the room. If we can get out of here without Evelyn or her lackeys seeing us, that would be icing on the cake. Cara and Will are waiting outside the door for us.

“We better go change into Dauntless clothes,” I say, looking at Christina and Will. “Do you know where the nearest restroom is?”

“Sure, follow me,” Cara says. She leads us down the hallway.

I run into Caleb after I exit the restroom. “What are you doing?” I ask him.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he says. “What are you doing here, and why are you wearing Erudite clothing?”

“You need to get out of here. Erudite is under attack.”

“I need to protect the data,” Caleb says.

“Evelyn’s going to destroy it all.”

“That’s not what I meant by protecting data,” Caleb says, shaking his head. “I need to make sure that the Abnegation data doesn’t get released.”

“What are you talking about?” I didn’t want to let him know that we just sent out the data to all of the factions.

“That data is about what’s outside of the fence. It’s dangerous.”

“Have you been listening to Jeanine? She’s manipulating you. She just wants to hold onto her own power.”

“I’ve seen it. It needs to stay hidden. Or better yet, destroyed forever.”

“Mother wouldn’t have risked her life to try to protect it if it wasn’t important,” I say, walking away from him. “It needs to get out.”

 

**Tobias**

The afternoon’s events have made me nauseous. When we arrived at Erudite, there were Candor surrounding the compound. Among the sleepwalking Candor were young children. We had to shoot some of them, too many of them, in order to get into Erudite. Once inside, Evelyn, Therese, Tori, and some of the other former Erudite were able to guide us to where we wanted to go.

Many of the Erudite surrendered right away; after all, they are intellectuals, not soldiers. The Dauntless guards, on the other hand, weren’t going down without a fight. I ended up shooting Drew, who was in my initiate class this year. Evidently after he didn’t make it into Dauntless, he volunteered to work with the Erudite as one of their soldiers.

Edward tore Jeanine’s picture from the wall at the entrance. “Down with Erudite!” he yells triumphantly. All around me, the factionless, and many Dauntless, join in the cheer. I find it hard to join in. While Erudite as a faction had killed a lot of people and caused a lot of damage, I can’t help but to think that not all of the Erudite are evil, like Jeanine, just like not all of Abnegation is like my father.

While we are fighting the Dauntless and resistant Erudite, I feel my tablet vibrate in my pocket. I’m not used to having one yet, but they gave it to me when I was elected a Dauntless leader. I can’t take time to look at it now, but I make a mental note to check my messages later.

“Up to the lab!” Therese shouts. Dauntless and Factionless alike follow her up the stairs. I watch as the escaping Erudite are penned downstairs, guards surrounding them. I walk up the stairs. On each floor, I see destruction. A Dauntless man is breaking medicine bottles and machinery in the hospital; a factionless woman breaks beakers in one of the labs. Books in the library are being ripped apart. I can’t help but wonder to myself if all of this destruction is necessary.

I follow Tori up to the top floor, to Jeanine’s laboratory. It’s unlocked. We pass an initial blue room, a room with pictures of myself and some other Divergents that I know, and then we reach Jeanine.

“If you want the data, I already sent it out,” Jeanine says.

“That’s not what I’m here for,” Tori says. “I’m here because you killed my brother.”

“I don’t – ”

“You don’t remember him? His name was George. George Wu. I want to hear you say it.”

“I didn’t kill him.”

“Do you think that exonerates you?” Tori asks. Her voice is full of rage. “Do you think that means you don’t deserve to die?”

Tori’s grief is apparent as she yells at Jeanine. She must have been allowing her brother’s death to eat at her for years.

“The reasons for my actions are beyond your understanding,” Jeanine says. “I was willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good, something you have never understood, not even when we were classmates!”

Tori is pointing her gun at Jeanine. In normal circumstances, I would try to stop her, but not today. Not with Jeanine. She has been responsible for most of the death and destruction that we have experienced in recent weeks. I grit my teeth. She deserves to die.

I hear a scream as Tori pulls the trigger. Jeanine falls to the ground. She is gasping for air. It looks like she was hit in one of her lungs.

“This is for my brother,” Tori says. “George Wu.” She points the gun at Jeanine’s head, and fires again. Whatever light was once in her eyes is now dimmed.


	26. Amanda's Message

**Tobias**

Tori puts her gun down. Her breath is shallow, and she has a wild look in her eyes. She takes a deep breath and closes them. “That needed to be done,” she says.

“Let’s go,” I tell her. “It’s over.”

I remember the tablet in my pocket. I pull it out and check my messages. It’s a message from Jeanine Matthews. It’s a video file from Abnegation. “I think that we’ve found it,” I say.

I sit down at Jeanine’s computer. “Let’s end the mystery once and for all,” I mutter to myself. I plug my tablet into the computer, go through the necessary steps to broadcast the message, and press play.

The video starts. A lady with short brown hair, that I’ve never seen before, is sitting at a simple desk with a plain blue background behind her. “Hello, my name is Amanda Ritter,” the lady says. In this file I will tell you only what you need to know. I am the leader of an organization fighting for justice and peace.”

She continues, telling about how dangerous the world has become. Soon, the video shows pictures of war. Some of the pictures seem familiar; similar to what we’ve gone through in the last few weeks: emotionless individuals pointing guns at other people, dying people lying on the ground. Some pictures show destruction that is hard to imagine, including a pit the size of a house, full of dead bodies, and cities that have been razed by bombs too large to imagine. The images are so disturbing that it is hard to watch.

Amanda Ritter explains the images. Evidently, this terrible destruction was created by people like us. Human nature had become corrupt. The government had become corrupt as well; the fighting was a result of this corruption. We had been placed in this city so that we could stay safe. Whatever was outside of the city was dangerous, and by keeping us inside, we could survive.

When I went through Dauntless initiation, I was told that whatever was outside the fence was dangerous. Now I understand this more fully. As far back as I can remember, there has never been an incident on the fence, but perhaps we just have been lucky.

“You will know when it’s time to help us,” Amanda continues. “You will know that it is time when there are many among you whose minds appear to be more flexible than the others. The name you should give those people is Divergent.” Ever since I discovered that I was Divergent, I was always told that it was something that I should be ashamed of. It has never been a good thing. Amanda makes it seem like I am an integral part to our society moving forward.

 

**Tris**

I watch the video, horrified, on one of the video screens in the hallway. “Once they become abundant among you, your leaders should give the command for Amity to unlock the gate forever, so that you may emerge from your isolation.” Mother was right. Opening the fence will change everything.

Amanda gives some instructions about restricting this information to the government. I can’t believe that my parents knew this information all along, but were able to keep this a secret all this time.

“I am about to join your number,” Amanda continues. “Like the rest of you, I will voluntarily forget my name, my family, and my home. I will take on a new identity, with false memories and a false history. But so that you know the information that I have provided you with is accurate, I will tell you the name I am about to take as my own.”

I watch her as her smile widens. She looks almost familiar. “My name will be Edith Prior,” she continues. “And there is much I am happy to forget.”

_Prior?_ Was she my ancestor?

The video stops. I lean against the wall. There is so much to take in.


	27. We are Still Dauntless

**Tris**

There is a commotion in the hallway. I see Therese rushing down the hallway. She stops and looks at me. “What are you doing here?”

Fortunately, I had time to change into Dauntless black clothing before the commotion could reach the top floors. Now is not the time to pretend to be Erudite. “I – I wanted to help.”

Therese shrugs. “I guess that we could use everyone’s help.” She looks at the weapon in my hand. “It looks like we’re done with the fighting though. I can take your weapon off your hands for you.”

“No thanks,” I smile sweetly, shaking my head. “I may have chosen Abnegation, but I’m Divergent. I’m part Dauntless. I’ll keep it, if you don’t mind.”

Therese frowns. I wonder if part of their strategy was to try to convince Dauntless to give up their weapons after the attack. I hope that the other Dauntless were able to see through their little ruse. Prior to leaving today, we did tell everybody to not trust the Factionless.

I start to head down the stairway. The entire building was loud before; now it seems like things are starting to wind down. When I get to the main floor, I see Uriah huddled over a body. Marlene.

“What’s going on?” I ask, kneeling down beside him.

“She’s hurt,” Uriah answers. “She was shot while coming down the stairway.”

I run my hand over her hair. She is moaning in pain.

“I need a doctor!” I yell.

An Erudite woman approaches us. She lifts up Marlene’s shirt to look at the wound. Marlene has been shot in the stomach. There is an amazing amount of blood surrounding her wound.

“I’m sorry, I won’t be able to do anything about this,” she says, shaking her head. “She’s too far gone. If our hospital hadn’t been destroyed today, we could probably repair this, but you and your friends have destroyed too much today.”

“There must be something you can do!” Uriah shouts.

“No, I’m sorry, I can’t do anything.”

Uriah picks Marlene up and holds her. Tears are coming to his eyes. “Marlene,” he says softly. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Marlene says weakly. “I – I’m not going to make it.”

“Don’t say that,” Uriah whispers. “Maybe there’s a chance.”

“No. I’ll always love you though.” She closes her eyes.

Uriah sits there for a minute, holding her in his arms. “No!” he cries.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

I look around the room. The room is full of Erudite, Dauntless, Factionless, and Candor; the simulation must have either been shut off or wore off on its own; the Candor are looking around with a confused look on their faces. On the floor, I see a giant portrait of Jeanine, which is now broken into pieces. Some people are angrily kicking at it and stomping on it. There are several wounded people lying on the floor; some people in Erudite are going from person to person, examining them and doing what they can do to patch them up.

I see Tobias enter. He comes and sits down beside me.

“Looks like it’s over,” he says.

Evelyn enters the room. The room becomes quiet. All eyes seem to fall on her.

 

**Tobias**

I watch my mother come into the room. She has a smug look on her face. I wonder what she’s up to. I still don’t trust her.

She looks around the room. “I know that you are all wondering what will happen next, so I am here to tell you.”

_She_ wants to tell _us_ what’s going to happen next? I don’t think so. When we agreed to an alliance, we agreed to an equal say in the government to come.

“The faction system that has long supported itself on the backs of discarded human beings will be disbanded at once,” she says. “We know that this transition will be difficult for you, but – ”

“I don’t think so!” I say. “We haven’t agreed to that.”

“Really?” she says, turning to me. “How are you going to stop us?”

“We are Dauntless,” I say.

“Are you going to take up arms against us?”

“If we have to.” After Amanda’s video played, one of the Factionless generously _offered_ to take my weapon from me. I declined on the offer. Maybe part of her little plan was to take all of our weapons.

Around me, I hear the sound of Dauntless pulling out their weapons.

“Were you planning on taking our weapons?” I ask. “From the looks of it, it didn’t work. I told everyone here not to trust you. Perhaps I was right in that.”

Evelyn frowns.

“You promised us an equal say in the government,” I add. “We don’t necessarily have to keep things the way that they were, but you do not have the right to dictate the terms for everyone else.”

“We also need to talk about the world outside the fence,” Tris adds.

“What about that?” Evelyn asks. “Why should we care about the outside world?”

The room is silent for a minute. The Factionless want power now, and none of us in Dauntless have had the chance to discuss plans for the future.

“We haven’t had the chance to discuss the future among our faction,” Tori says. “Maybe you want to dictate your own terms, but we have to agree to them. I suggest that we have a future meeting to discuss what these terms are. In the meantime, we’re going back to Dauntless headquarters.”

“Anybody who wants to come with us is welcome,” I add. “No matter what faction you come from. If you don’t want to abide by Evelyn’s rules, I suggest that you follow us.”

A crowd of us stand up and start to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's the end of this book. There will be two more books to this story.
> 
> Will there be an end to this war? What will happen when they leave the city? How will Natalie Prior's presence change what happens at the Bureau? What will become of Tris and Tobias? Find out all this, and more, when the third book to this story, titled Divergent, hopefully comes out in 2016.
> 
> Until then, leave a comment if you'd like. Hope you're enjoying it so far! :-)


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